


(Yu Ta)lk Too Much

by jongkey_krisho



Series: With You [2]
Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Angst, College AU, Fluff, M/M, Romance, Sequel, Smut, dance au, friendships
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-17
Updated: 2021-02-02
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:40:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 32,850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24224482
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jongkey_krisho/pseuds/jongkey_krisho
Summary: Summer has gone by, and now Si Cheng is back in town as a junior in his university, ready to spend another semester with his best friend, his boyfriend, and everyone else as they set out to tackle any challenges that life decides to throw at them.Of course, life decides to take that as a bet. First, his adoptive Korean cousin Jungwoo comes to this university, a sixteen year old enrolling as a freshman who has been sheltered all his life from Si Cheng’s crazy aunt and uncle, so Si Cheng decides to take him under his wing. Then, Si Cheng’s big fight with his parents causes him to cut off all contact with them. Yuta starts struggling with his mentoring project and his classes a lot worse than what he’s done in the past, especially now that he’s a senior, and Si Cheng is busy persuading him to get his ADHD checked. On top of that, Si Cheng’s traditional dance classes make him the lead role in a performance the university is throwing, and now Si Cheng is getting stressed at that, and his therapist suggesting him more meds is definitely not going to help with the situation.Yuta’s right, Si Cheng needed a plan, and he needed one now.
Relationships: Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul | Ten/Suh Youngho | Johnny, Dong Si Cheng | WinWin/Nakamoto Yuta, Jung Yoonoh | Jaehyun/Lee Taeyong, Kim Jungwoo/Wong Yuk Hei | Lucas, Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Mark Lee, Park Jisung/Zhong Chen Le, Qian Kun/Xiao De Jun | Xiao Jun
Series: With You [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1096746
Comments: 26
Kudos: 83





	1. Guess Who’s Back, Bitches?!

**Author's Note:**

> Yep, this is the sequel!  
> I'm losing access tonight, but I was able to write this chapter in time to give you guys something before I practically disappear for a few weeks. Hopefully you guys like it!

His stupid friend was running late. 

To be fair, it was not Ten’s fault; his flight from Thailand had a delay, so he was arriving later than expected. However, this meant that Si Cheng, who had planned with Ten on their flights to arrive at the same time to head to the university together, now had to wait a little longer. 

There wasn’t anything he could do about it, though, so he decided to sit at one of the cafes in the airport and ordered himself a frappe and a scone, checking his phone for any updates regarding his friend. 

Ten’s airfare had come with free Wifi, so he didn’t have to worry about being cut off. Currently, he had just sent Si Cheng yet another text about being cold in the airplane and regretting not unpacking his blanket from his suitcase. Si Cheng rolled his eyes at his friend’s idiocy - Ten was truly something to be admired about. 

He got his cafe order and sat down on one of the little tables in the cafe, his suitcase next to his chair as he took a sip of his frappe to check his phone. He had another text from his mother, asking about his flight, so he quickly sent her a text before he got another notification. 

_ Tofu Hater _

_ Today, 1:45 PM _

_ Tell me when you're ready to pick you guys up!! _

_ :D _

Ah, yes, his boyfriend, popular college boy senior Nakamoto Yuta. Japanese boy that girls and guys drooled over. The guy that first talked to Si Cheng in their statistics class where Yuta didn’t know shit. Still a mystery how he passed; he had trouble with a lot of concepts, but Yuta did always put his best effort in everything. 

Si Cheng still cringes whenever he thinks about how they started dating; Si Cheng accidentally thought Yuta was asking him out, and in embarrassment, ran out of the car up to his dorm room. Thank  _ god  _ that Yuta trailed after him, resulting in a lovely first kiss and now someone to call his.

Summer had been excruciatingly painful; he didn’t have Ten to hang out with, and to top that, he didn’t have Yuta either. His internship at a science organization had gone well, but all the scoldings from his mother and father reminded him why he did not like to go home to visit. 

At least they calmed down when Yuta came over to visit in July for a week. They had been so fake, acting nice and everything, but hey, as long as they didn’t yell at Si Cheng about the stupid dance lesson he had wanted to take in his free time, he could care less. 

It had been really lovely when Yuta came over to visit; Si Cheng showed him around in Wenzhou and took him to his favorite places. Yuta had been enthusiastic, having wanted to see where his boyfriend grew up, and they spent the week together enjoying the time with one another. As a bonus, on the last night he stayed, Si Cheng’s parents had headed off to a business trip in Beijing again, so Yuta and Si Cheng made love again, the second time in their relationship, and it was so amazing that Si Cheng now realized why Ten was so obsessed with it with Johnny. 

When Yuta left, Si Cheng didn’t feel as sad as before, because soon enough it was the America trip, where they all went to the three cities. Si Cheng still didn’t know English, but since most of their friend group spoke English, there wasn’t any trouble at all. They had so many things happen in the America trip that Si Cheng could write a whole book about. Thankfully none of them have died (almost - LONG STORY).

Yuta had arrived yesterday from Japan, so he offered to pick up Si Cheng and Ten instead of them having to deal with ubers and taxis and whatnot. Si Cheng would love to see him as soon as possible, but it wouldn’t be fair to make him stay here and wait, plus there was the whole parking issue. 

_ Tofu Hater _

_   
_ _ Today, 1:46 PM _

_ Actually, bad news _

_ Ten’s flight is delayed _

_ OOF _

_ F _

_ F _

_ It’s fine, I can head over now _

_ I don’t mind waiting since I’ll be with you _

_ :D _

  
  


Si Cheng couldn’t help but smile. Of course Yuta wouldn’t mind coming anyways. That’s just who Yuta was. 

He wouldn’t have it any other way. 

  
  


***

  
  


“Thank GOD I’m outside, now, it was so cold in that fucking airplane,” Ten said when he got out of the airport, next to Si Cheng who was holding hands with Yuta. “I miss the sun.”

“You know you could see the sun from the airplane, right?” Si Cheng reminded him.

“Yeah, but I wasn’t being engulfed by the warm sun rays that will give me skin cancer in the long run,” Ten said, rolling his eyes. 

“Well,  _ someone  _ did their summer reading,” Yuta muttered, only earning a gasp from Ten. 

“Are you calling me stupid?!”

Si Cheng didn’t butt into the conversation; he secretly enjoyed it when Ten and Yuta argued. It made him feel nice, that his best friend and boyfriend got along. Yuta thought Johnny was cool, too, and Si Cheng was pretty sure Ten was going to drag them to more double dates soon. 

Johnny had taken a semester off, the spring semester, in order to go back home and to help his family with their business. Thankfully, he had been able to find another scholarship to cover his remaining costs for university, so he was coming back for this semester. His family’s business was in much better standing now, too, so he didn’t have to work as much anymore. 

Ten did do the long-distance thing with Johnny for the spring semester with no problems; Si Cheng had no idea how that was possible, since the movies always portrayed it with at least one break up and a visit to where the other lived. 

Like he said, Ten was something else indeed. 

They made their way to Yuta’s car and headed their way back to the university, talking the entire time. The last time the three had met was the America trip, where Yuta had a couple of bruises, Ten with two extra suitcases, and Si Cheng with a concussion. Good times. 

“I can’t believe you guys have an apartment,” Yuta said, taking a quick glance at the rearview mirror; Ten and Si Cheng sat in the back, since they couldn’t finish their argument of who got shotgun. “In the same complex as us.”

“Yeah, well, we got the first floor, so we don’t have to climb the stairs,” Ten bragged.

“That’s because it’s two rooms,” Si Cheng reminded him. “They have three rooms. Plus, you still have to climb the stairs for your stuff.”

“Don’t remind me.”

This year, instead of being in the red dorm again, like last year, Si Cheng and Ten had decided to get an apartment, along with Johnny who was going to be rooming with Ten. That is precisely the  _ only  _ reason why Si Cheng let them get the master bedroom; two people means more room. Plus, if Ten and Johnny wanted to fuck, that didn’t mean he was locked out now-

Oh wait. Si Cheng and Yuta. … He forgot. 

To be fair, they have only had sex three times, and none of them had ever been in Si Cheng’s dorm room. Their first was in Yuta’s apartment, second in Si Cheng’s house in China, and third in the hotel in Los Angeles, before they started the crazy America adventure. Never in Si Cheng’s dorm in university. Interesting…

“So when are you guys going to buy your stuff?” Yuta asked, right when he pulled into the apartment complex. “You don’t even have mattresses yet.”

“Oh, me and Ten planned on going today,” Si Cheng said. “Oh god, we have to buy beds.”

“This is going to be so fun!” Ten said, getting out of the car. “I can finally move freely and not have to worry about leaving the dorm at two am because someone burned popcorn in the microwave again!”

“Yeah, I don’t miss the fire drills,” Yuta agreed, getting out of the car as well. “But you don’t even have a microwave.”

Si Cheng got out, closing the door as he looked up at the apartment complex. It brought him comfort, being here after so long. 

He really was back into university. 

  
  


***

  
  


Later at night, after Si Cheng and Ten were done getting their stuff out of the apartment, Yuta sat on his bed, anime on the TV as he ate a bowl of popcorn. 

Mark should have been here earlier, but he was probably too busy with Haechan again. They started dating after the party that night that they won the dance-off, which was pretty weird to say the least. Did they not just hate each other a week before? 

He shrugged. Eh, that’s Mark for you. As long as they weren’t giving him headaches during dance practices, that’s all that mattered. 

Since they won the dance-off with flying colors, the 127! Group had been given the chance to mentor five boys this semester, giving them dance practices. They were incoming freshmen, Yuta recalled, three Koreans and two Chinese. Yuta just  _ knew  _ that Mark and Taeyong would try some kinky dances, and of course Haechan and Jaehyun were not going to stop them.

Speaking of the devil, Jaehyun opened the door, slamming it against the wall. “I’M HERE, BITCH!”

Yuta accidently knee-jerked his popcorn off the bed, spilling it everywhere on the floor. “What the fuck, man, I’m watching Inuyasha right now?”

Mark pushed past Jaehyun. “I’m here too, thot, why do you get to make the grand entrance?” Mark yelled at Jaehyun. 

“Because  _ I  _ am better than you,” Jaehyun reminded him. 

“Okay,  _ why  _ are you guys in my room?” Yuta said, getting off his bed. He paused when he stepped on the popcorn, looking down and sighing. “You couldn’t have done a normal greeting? Like hello, we’re back after not seeing each other-”

“We saw each other in America though,” Mark said.

“That wasn’t during school, dummy!” Yuta yelled at him.

He walked up to the doorway and started pushing them out of his room, taking them to the living room. “You owe me pizza.”

“I don’t owe you  _ shit! _ ” Jaehyun shouted. That’s when Yuta saw Mark and Jaehyun’s suitcases in the living room. “I just had a long flight, so-”

“Dude, you live twenty minutes away from here-”

“Never mind all that.” Jaehyun plopped himself down on the couch, throwing his head back. “So glad to be back.”

“We have a week until classes start, so we have time to do all we want!” Mark exclaimed, sitting down next to Jaehyun. “Senior year, here we come!"

Yuta rolled his eyes at them, heading towards the kitchen. Since they emptied everything in the house when they left, not wanting to spoil food or have rats come, the kitchen had been empty when he arrived, so he had to buy some snacks in the meantime to keep himself sane. “I am  _ so  _ not looking forward to senior year, all the classes are going to be too hard.”

“Nah, they’ll be fine, bro- yo, is that oreos?” Mark asked Yuta, who did indeed pull out oreos from the cupboard. “Dude, give me some!”

“Heck no, I just bought these today!!” Yuta opened the package and grabbed a cookie, taking a bite. “I’m fucking starving.”

“Yo, you should give me an oreo, too,” Jaehyun added as well. “Go eat ramen or something-”

“YO, RAMEN!” Yuta threw the package at the two, hitting Jaehyun square in the face, the latter yelping as Yuta ran to his room to get his shoes. “I’m going to ask Si Chengie!”

“That hurt man!” Jaehyun shouted, while Mark took the package off Jaehyun’s lap where it had fallen, opening it and taking a coolie. 

Yuta came back out of the room wearing socks and sandals. He didn’t even bother to change out of his sweatpants and t-shirt. “I’m going to ask Si Cheng if he wants to get ramen, I’ll be back!”

And with that, he left the apartment, phone in his hand as he texted Si Cheng. 

  
***

“Man, I miss this ramen,” Yuta said, picking up some more noodles with his chopsticks. “Ramen dates are the best dates.”

“Only you would want to eat ramen at 11 PM,” Si Cheng said, pushing back his empty bowl. Yuta was on his second one, but Si Cheng didn’t have more room. “God, today has been stressful.”

“Wait till classes start,” Yuta said before shoving the noodles in his mouth, eating them. After he swallowed, he added “Yum.” 

Si Cheng looked around the familiar ramen shop, happy to be here again, when he saw someone at the register. “Yuta, look, that dude looks like my cousin,” he said, pointing.

“That reminds me, I have yet to meet the rest of your family,” Yuta said. “Did I tell you my brother got a girlfriend?”

“Naoki got a girlfriend?” Si Cheng asked, surprised. That guy was pretty cold with girls. “No way.”

“Yeah, some girl named Kotoko. He says she’s stupid but he’s with her, I don’t know he’s weird.” Yuta took another handful of noodles. “I’m going to come here everyday this week-”

“That’s not healthy, but I’ll come with you- uh oh.”

The guy saw Si Cheng, his eyes widening. “Winwin?!”

He came closer, waving. “Si Cheng, it’s me, Jungwoo!”

“Jungwoo?!” Si Cheng got out of his chair. “What are you doing here?”

  
  



	2. Always over Food, TBH

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I WILL TRY TO UPLOAD MY OTHER THREE STORIES TOMORROW THIS IS THE LAST UPLOAD FOR TODAY

“I can’t believe you go to this university!” Jungwoo said in Korean, hugging a startled Si Cheng. “Mama always said you went to a Korean one, but I didn’t know which.”

“Jungwoo you’re  _ crushing me _ ,” Si Cheng whispered, losing air with each new word said. Thankfully, Jungwoo let go of him, allowing him to breathe again. “Oof, thanks.”

“Sorry, it’s just been so long since I’ve last seen you-”

The employee at the register called out Jungwoo’s name, stating his order was ready, making Jungwoo excuse himself from Si Cheng for a minute in order to get it.

“You have a Korean cousin?” Yuta whispered to Si Cheng while Jungwoo was distracted.

“He’s adopted,” Si Cheng explained. “Aunt Ximei was sterile and couldn’t have kids biologically, so she had adopted Jungwoo more than a decade ago, when he was around five. She had wanted a baby, but Uncle Wei was pretty sexist and said he wasn’t going to help her out taking care of any kids.”

“Well, your uncle doesn’t sound that appealing,” Yuta said, rolling his eyes. Thank  _ god  _ his parents were more progressive; Yuta had almost cried tears of happiness when they accepted him coming out as queer. 

He thought about Si Cheng’s parents, who didn’t like their son’s dancing career. They had put up such an act when Yuta first met them at the hospital when Si Cheng broke his leg, and it was awful knowing they didn’t accept Si Cheng and who he was. They’re fucking stupid if they don’t see what an amazing son they have. 

Jungwoo came back with his order in a to-go container, practically bouncing with excitement. “I can’t believe you’re in the same university as me, Si Cheng, this is really cool!”

“Yeah, uni has not been as bad as I thought,” Si Cheng agreed. “Oh, this right here is Yuta, he’s-”

“Oh, your boyfriend, right?” Jungwoo answered for him. “Aunt Renxi would talk to Mama about that.” 

Si Cheng frowned. “Did she now…”

“Yeah, at least you get to have a boyfriend,” Jungwoo said, pouting a little. “I don’t get to."

Si Cheng’s eyes widened a little hearing that his cousin was gay. That wasn’t good at  _ all _ . Aunt Ximei and Uncle Wei constantly talk about their disapproval for the LGBT+ community. If they found out about Jungwoo…. God, Si Cheng didn’t even want to think about it. Even though Si Cheng’s parents weren’t really accepting at first, causing Si Cheng hell for a few months, they were still the type to think that Si Cheng needed “fixing”, his Aunt and Uncle would practically disown Jungwoo instead. “Well, you’re here in uni now,” Si Cheng told him. “Plus, you’re sixteen-”

“WAIT, YOU’RE SIXTEEN?!” Yuta exclaimed, forgetting that they were in the ramen shop and people were now staring at him. Luckily, it was past eleven, almost midnight, so there were only three other people in the shop. The owners didn’t care, anyways; they could never kick Yuta out, he helped so much with business. “How are you in college?!”

“He skipped two grades,” Si Cheng explained, having heard the story from his mother, who would tell him all of what Jungwoo spent his time studying in middle and high school. “He’s really smart.”

“Uh, it’s fine, really.” Jungwoo looked out towards the window, grimacing. “Oh, no, it’s dark.”

“Don’t worry about it, I can walk with you to your dorm.” Si Cheng got up from the table, stacking his and Yuta’s bowls. “We should go before Yuta gets a third serving.”

“Excuse me, I am  _ not  _ all about food,” Yuta pouted, crossing his arms. “But can I order take-out real quick?”   
  


***

  
  


“Wait, Jungwoo goes to this university?” Ten asked. He was painting his nails on his bed in his room, while Johnny snored under the blankets. Johnny had yet to fix his sleep schedule, after all. “The same Jungwoo?”

Si Cheng rolled his eyes. “Ten, what other Jungwoo would I know?”

“I don’t know, SI Cheng, maybe because we’re in  _ Korea _ .” He held out his nail brush and pointed it at Si Cheng’s face. “Don’t make me use this.”

“That’s clear polish, at least threaten me with neon green or something.” Si Cheng shuddered, thinking about the awful color. “Oh jeez.”   
  


“So Jungwoo, the sixteen year old whose parents are ten times more conservative than yours?” Ten kept prodding. “The one who probably doesn’t even know what sex is- yo, what if your aunt figured out you weren’t a virgin anymore and hung out with him?”

“Oh, she probably hates me now regardless,” Si Cheng admitted. “He said our moms talked about me and Yuta together.”

Ten’s eyes widened. “Oh no."

“Yep.” Si Cheng grabbed his phone off the covers and got up, stretching. “I should probably go to sleep now.”   
  


“Come on, Winwin, school doesn’t start yet, we can stay up, you know.” Ten capped his nail polish and put it on the nightstand, too lazy to find his box of makeup. “Eat a shit ton of rice crackers or something.” 

Si Cheng shook his head. “No, I’m too tired, plus, I have to call my mother if I don’t want her to continue spamming my phone, so…”

“Oh, all right, but AY!” Ten pointed at his eyes and then at Si Cheng. “I’m watching you. If I see you awake at 4 am we’re going to have problems, bitch.”

“I’m  _ not  _ sleeping at 4 am.” Si Cheng walked out of the room, his hand on the door handle. “Good night, bud.”

“Night, thot!!” Ten yelled when Si Cheng closed the door, heading to his own room. 

It was their first night in the apartment, and it was… definitely an odd feeling, to say the least. Si Cheng had gotten used to sharing a room with Ten for the past two years, even though he had his own room growing up. It was comforting, having someone sleep in the same room as you, even if Ten started mumbling some weird shit in his sleep about chicken feet tacos or whatever. 

Yep, Si Cheng had a recording of that.

His room was nice, though. He hadn’t decorated it yet, but he hung up those lights that let you clip photos on all around the room, plus soft pink Christmas lights around the border. He had his useless stash of piles stacked on his bed (well, mattress… beds were expensive, goddammit, he had to find cheap ones first. Tables really be costing one hundred dollars??? Like what??).

Si Cheng didn’t bother to turn on the main light, leaving only the fairy lights and Christmas lights on as he sat down criss-cross on the mattress, holding his phone against his ear waiting for his mother to answer. He knew it was pretty late, but his mother would still be awake; she had a habit of sleeping late, doing paperwork, even though she often scolds Si Cheng himself for staying up as well. 

She picked up on the third ring, annoyed. “Si Cheng, what are you doing awake at this hour-”

“Hello to you, too, mom,” Si Cheng muttered, playing with a frayed string from his sock. She was going to start ranting again. 

“I know your classes don’t start yet, but if you continue like this, your sleeping patterns are going to get worse- have you even taken your medicine in time-”   
“Yep,” Si Cheng said, popping the p, as he switched from playing with his sock to one of the corners of his favorite pillow designed to look like a watermelon slice. Yuta had hand sewn it himself; he said he got the sudden urge to make SI Cheng a pillow at 2 am when he was watching an anime - yeah, Si Cheng didn’t know either. All he knew was that Yuta’s fingers were wrapped in bandages when he gave Si Cheng the gift and that he invited him for ramen afterwards. This was back in March, when Si Cheng still had his cast on, so he dragged his crutches and the watermelon pillow to the shop at 1 am. 

He stayed there in silence, thinking about Yuta and the pillow, ignoring his mother’s rants until she finally asked him “so what problem did you get into now?"

“Don’t worry about it, mom, I’ll call you tomorrow, okay?”

Si Cheng hung up his phone, not hearing his mother’s response, as he looked at the ceiling, following his rule of allowing only one tear drop to fall. 

  
  


***

  
  


_ Tofu Hater  _

_ Today, 4:10 AM _

_ Can you let me know when you’re awake? _

_ It’s nothing urgent don’t worry _

_ Today, 4:12 AM _

_ What’s up? _

_ WHY ARE YOU UP AT THIS HOUR _

_ YOU ARE ALSO UP TOO _

_ Fair point _

_ No seriously what’s wrong _

_ I just couldn’t sleep _

_ That’s all _

_ But why are you awake? _

_ I’m re-watching Inuyasha _

_ THE SEQUEL IS COMING OUT YES!!! _

_ But what the FUCK happened to Kagome regarding her daughter _

_ Inu what _

_ What’s that _

_ Did _

_ Did you just ask me _

_ WHAT IS WAS??? _

_ Yes, Yuta, I am a very stupid child _

_ Who doesn’t know what’s best for his future _

_ That’s oddly specific are you okay? _

_ What’d your mother do this time? _

_ My mother didn’t do anything _

_ You expect me to believe that _

_ Keep in mind Si Cheng I live a few floors above you _

_ I won’t hesitate to come down and see you _

_ Damn it _

_ I’m fine don’t worry _

_ Ok _

_ But I’m letting you know you can always spill anything to me _

_ FUCK I spilled my popcorn again _

  
  


***

The week passed without incident, mainly as other students on campus came back from their homes and settled in. 

Sunday, the day before classes start, Si Cheng was at the canteen along with Jungwoo; Johnny had taken Ten somewhere as a “surprise date”, and he had no idea what Yuta was doing, but it involved helping Mark get his hand out of a vending machine, sending Si Cheng recordings of him trying to get Mark out while Jaehyun laughed in the background, eating a Twix. 

Jungwoo, as a freshman, didn’t know anyone yet, so Si Cheng had been accompanying him regularly so that he doesn’t eat alone. Cue in his flashbacks for his first two months of freshman year. 

“I really like the American food they’re giving us,” Jungwoo said in Mandarin, happily taking another bite of his cheese fries (Americans eat it with hands, from what Si Cheng learned in America, but Jungwoo was eating it with chopsticks.) “I’ve never tried real American food before.”

“It’s pretty good,” Si Cheng said, taking another spoonful of his miso soup. “Different, but good.”

“Aunt Renxi said you went to America during the summer,” Jungwoo stated. “Is that true?”

Si Cheng nodded. “Yeah, we went to like three cities and did exploring, it was really fun. There were a lot of foreigners, too.”

“That’s so cool! I only know Chinese people, no one else.” Jungwoo looked around the full cafeteria, sighing. “Sometimes I think Mama forgets I’m Korean, she’s the only one who calls me Ting You.”

“Pfft, I never go by my Korean name Sa Sung here,” Si Cheng said, shrugging. “I just introduce myself as Winwin, no use giving people a name they can’t pronounce.”

“We should do a bet, for a week I go as Ting You and you as Sa Sung,” Jungwoo suggested, picking up another soggy fry with his chopsticks. His mother only let him have small amounts of Chinese foods, claiming he’ll grow to be fat and chubby. “For like, a week or something.”

“Yeah, no thank you, I hate Sa Sung with a passion.”

“Still better than my Chinese name.” Jungwoo set his chopsticks down, sighing. “Sometimes I feel like Mama hates me for being Korean.”

“Wait, why would you say that?” Si Cheng asked, even though he knew his Aunt Ximei was one of the most racist people he’s ever met. He could only wonder how she reacted when his mother told her that not only is Si Cheng gay but dating a Japanese, friends with a Thai and  _ living in Korea _ .

“Because she always says bad stuff about Koreans and Japanese like your- like in general,” Jungwoo cut himself off. 

Si Cheng could feel his heart fall. He knew exactly what Jungwoo was going to say, but also felt bad for him. How would you make fun of a group of people knowing your son is one of them? Him being raised by Chinese doesn’t change the fact. “There’s nothing wrong with any race or nationality, Jungwoo, Aunt Ximei is just closed minded.”

“But she’s still my mom,” Jungwoo argued. “I just… I don’t know what I did wrong.”

  
  


***

  
  


“Johnny, don’t make me throw this potato at you!” Ten yelled from the kitchen, where he was trying to make some Mexican dish. “Get those grapes away from me!”

Johnny stood by the dining room (they had bought the table the other day, so yay to no more sitting on the floor), grocery bags layed out in front of them. Sure, they had dining hall passes, but not enough to last a week. 

Earlier, Johnny had wanted to take Ten to the Hispanic place that Ten and Si Cheng loved, but it had been closed since the family had attended a quinceañera. Ten still wanted his potatoes and chorizo, though, so they decided to make it back at the apartment. 

That is, until Johnny had decided to sneak in some FRUIT into their place. 

“I’m just going to put them in the fridge!” Johnny argued, clutching the bags in his arms as he inched closer to the kitchen, eyes wide at the large chef knife Ten had in his hands. “You don’t have to eat them!”

“I’m watching you, mister,” Ten said, grabbing one of the peeled potatoes off the counter and raising it higher. “I have a weapon.”

“So let’s just ignore the knife in your hand,” Johnny said, opening the fridge and throwing the grapes in, shutting the door quickly. “There.”

“Thank god, I hate grapes, nasty fuckers.” Ten cut the potato in half on the cutting board. “Disgusting. You’re only getting away with it because I love you.”

Johnny took advantage of Ten not looking at him and grabbed a bag of apples out of another plastic bag, opening one of the top cabinets that he knew Ten couldn’t reach and shoving them in there. “Yep, only grapes, my love.”

At that moment, they heard someone knocking the front door.

Ten set the knife down, marching his way towards the living room. “Did Si Cheng lose his keys already?”

“I don’t think he’s ever had keys, if I’m honest,” Johnny admitted, grabbing a carton of strawberries and raspberries before running into the kitchen, trying to stuff them behind the fridge where Ten wouldn’t find them. He had to let Si Cheng know about the hiding places later. 

Ten stood on his toes, looking into the peephole before unlocking the door in confusion. “Mark? What are you doing here?”

“Oh, Yuta told me to give these to Winwin,” Mark said, handing Ten a plastic bag. “He would have given them himself but Winwin is at the canteen and Yuta accidentally took his night medicine and he was about to crash any second. He’s probably unconscious now as we speak.”   


“Kay, I’ll let Winwin know,” Ten said, taking the bag from Mark before looking in it. “Why is this in Japanese- holy shit, these are Kitkats.”   
  


“He ordered a ton of shit about a week ago for Winwin,” Mark explained. He rubbed his wrist, which Ten saw was covered in angry red marks (hah) and a scab. “Yuta’s going to be asleep for a good six hours, so if Winwin doesn’t get a response from him, tell him not to sweat it.”   
  


“Sounds good,” Ten said, turning around to put them in the kitchen when he froze. “JOHNNY WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU HOLDING A GRAPEFRUIT?!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> REMEMBER STAY SAFE DURING COVID19 AND THE PROTESTS!!!! BLACK LIVES MATTER!!!!


	3. Class is in Session

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :)

_ Tofu Hater _

_ Today, 3:23 PM _

_ [image attached] _

_ Yuta you shouldn’t have :’) _

_ Thank you, I love them <3 _

_ Today, 3:45 PM _

_ I forgot you were unconscious _

_ I want to lecture you but I hate lectures on medicine _

_ Anyways, I’ll be here when you wake up :D _

_ Today, 7:13 PM _

_ JESUS that’s some intense medicine _

_ Anyways now that my whole day was ruined _

_ How was yours my love _

_ Good! I ate some of the Kit Kats XD _

_ I just had dinner, too _

_ Pretty excited for classes tomorrow _

_ Ah shit I forgot the college part in college students _

_ Dammit _

_ Well there went my carefree life  _

_ Press F to pay respects _

_ F _

_ Yo I meet the dancing kids tomorrow as well _

_ Shit’s about to get INTENSE I tell you _

_ Also WHERE IS MY INUYASHA SEQUEL _

_ WHERE’S THE SECOND SEASON FOR OURAN HSHC _

_ You actually saw the anime!! _

_ You will become an otaku soon enough _

_ BUT YES IT’S BEEN TEN YEARS _

_ Unfortunately _

_ I will drink the commoners coffee!! _

_ Also Yuta remember not to drink too much coffee _

_ And get a good night’s sleep tonight _

_ You know I will _

_ No you won’t _

_ Well there went my boyfriend having confidence in me _

_ I’m pretty sure you were watching Inuyasha just now _

_ Now’s not the time to go over my flaws _

_ Maybe I’ll sleep better if you're here with me :) _

_ Um _

_ You want sex now?! _ _   
  
_

_ WHERE DID YOU GET THAT _

_ DONG SI CHENG  _

_ IF I WERE BEING HORNY I WOULD HAVE SENT THE WINKY FACE _ _   
  
_

_ My bad!!!  _

_ It’s just weird having sex at what, eight pm? _

_ At least wait till midnight _

_ I thought you said to have a good night sleep _

_ Okay, then 11 _

_ THEN we sleep at midnight _

_ DId you just make a dick appointment _

_ Homeboy you can CANCEL it whenever you want _

_ NOPE _

_ Your place or mine?  _

_ Can it be yours? Please? _ _   
_ _ I only have one pair of sheets _

_ No problem baby  _

_ I’ll pick you up :) _

_ Yuta _

_ WE LIVE IN THE SAME APARTMENT COMPLEX _

_ I REFUSE TO BELIEVE CHIVALRY IS DEAD _

_ We live in a society _

_ Where homophobia, racism, colorism, and sexism exists _

_ Unfortunately _

_ Fuck the patriarchy _

***

“Ah, Yuta, ah~”

“You like that, Si Cheng?” Yuta asked, thrusting harder into his boyfriend, the latter who was beautifully arching his back as he practically clawed Yuta’s back, pulling him closer towards him. “How much do you want to be fucked by me?”   
  


Si Cheng let out a moan as Yuta quickened his pace, Si Cheng mumbling his usual Mandarin gibberish. Yuta still didn’t know that much Chinese, but he was able to pick up a few lewd phrases from that one time he was curious and searched up what Chinese people would say during sex. 

Hey, there was nothing wrong with Yuta wanting to learn what Si Cheng was saying. 

Yuta rolled his hips more and lifted up Si Cheng’s leg to give himself a better angle, and just a few seconds later, Si Cheng managed to come all over his stomach. It didn’t even take Yuta a minute to come as well, in awe of Si Cheng’s post-climax glow. 

The two stayed there in silence, only hearing each other’s desperate breathing as Yuta let himself fall to the side of Si Cheng. 

“Let me clean you up,” Yuta sputtered, grabbing the towel and wipes that he kept on his nightstand just for this occasion. Well… it  _ would  _ be for this occasion. This was the second time they have sex in his apartment, after all. 

It was still a pretty new step in their relationship, he had to admit, and Yuta was still scared of accidentally hurting the latter or making him feel pressured. He enjoyed every intimate moment they shared and only wanted Si Cheng to have good experiences. 

He cleaned up Si Cheng, the latter still heavy breathing, when they heard then heard someone outside Yuta’s room shout “MAN, FUCK WATERMELON SEEDS.”

“Oh my fucking god, MARK SHUT UP CAN’T YOU SEE IT’S ALMOST MIDNIGHT!!!” Yuta yelled back, making sure his idiotic roommate. 

Si Cheng covered his mouth, trying not to laugh. Yuta saw it, though. He saw it. 

“Don’t laugh at me, you said we had to get a good night’s sleep,” Yuta reminded him, which didn’t stop Si Cheng’s muffled laughter. 

“I’m sorry, that was so random,” Si Cheng said, before removing his hand from his mouth to laugh freely. 

Yuta threw the dirtied towel onto the floor and grabbed the blankets, covering him and Si Cheng. “He’s such an idiot, he has at least one watermelon rant per week. And that’s if we’re lucky.”

“At least you don’t have to hide things around your apartment.” Si Cheng scooted closer towards Yuta, wrapping the blanket tighter around him. “Me and Johnny have a system on where to keep fruit since Ten will literally kill you on sight if he sees you with one.”

“Yeah, I learned  _ that  _ lesson the hard way,” Yuta muttered, placing his leg on top of Si Cheng. “Speaking of lessons…”

“Class starts tomorrow,” Si Cheng whispered. His eyes were already half-shut, as he was worn out. “I hope it goes well.”

“Me too.”   
  


  
***

  
  


“Class did NOT go well,” Yuta yelled at Jaehyun and Mark the next day while they were at lunch. “I fucking hate my proffesor-”

“You haven’t even given it one day,” Jaehyun reminded him. “ONE!”

Yuta crossed his arms across his chest and pouted. “I can make my opinions whenever I want, thank you very much.”

“Okay, boomer,” Mark said, taking another bite of his burger. He was still chewing it when he continued talking. “Ew, I got pickles-”

“Don’t you dare call me a boomer.” Yuta begrudgingly grabbed his chopsticks, chin resting on his left hand as he stared at his sushi rolls. “Senior year is going to suck ass.”

“Come on, man, senior year is supposed to be the best year,” Jaehyun said. “Look at the bright side, you’re going to get your degree very soon.”

Mark reached over to grab Yuta’s water bottle. “Yeah, dude, plus we have that group we’re teaching dance, remember? Those freshman?”

“That reminds me.” Jaehyun grabbed his backpack off the floor and unzipped it, rummaging through it. “I’m pretty sure I had the file here somewhere-”

“Only  _ you  _ would print it out.” Yuta snatched his water bottle from Mark’s hand, ignoring the other’s string of curses. “I just want to graduate already and set up our own agency.”

Jaehyun slammed the file down on the table, instantly pulling back his hand, yelping in pain. “Goddammit, that hurt!!”

“Idiot.” Mark opened the file and looked at the list of names of the freshman. “Huang Renjun. Na Jaemin. Lee Jeno- wait a second, I think Haechan knows a guy named Jeno."

“Dude, these are FRESHMEN, your boyfriend isn’t going to know them.” Jaehyun pointed at the other two names on the list. “Do you know a Zhong Chen Le or a Park Jisung?”

“Actually, I’m pretty sure I’ve heard the name Chen Le somewhere,” Yuta interrupted. 

Jaehyun glared at him. “Not you too, Mr. I-know-everyone-on-campus-”

Not breaking eye contact, Yuta lifted up his chopsticks and pointed them at Jaehyun. “I’ll have you know, bitch, that- shit, what was my insult again?”

“Your face is an insult,” Mark muttered, shouting next when he felt something poke his eye. “Ow, you threw your chopsticks at me!!”

“Don’t be a whiny bitch,” Yuta reminded him. He grabbed the file and looked over it. “So, when are we teaching these freshmen how to dance?”   
  
***

Jungwoo unfortunately had classes during the entire lunch period at the cafeteria, so he ended up going to the cafeteria during the late lunch hours alone, already exhausted. 

Even though he was a freshman, he had stacked up in as many classes as he could. His mother had pressured him to do as much as he can and not settle for less, unlike his “fellow Korean classmates.”

She was xenophobic, he was pretty sure of it. 

His mother hated it when he called himself Jungwoo, claiming that it sounded stupid. So imagine her anger when she discovered that her only son was going to study in a Korean university for four years (well, three - she was pretty sure he could graduate early.) Jungwoo had gotten into many good Chinese universities, even some in Singapore and Hong Kong, why couldn’t he go to those?

Jungwoo had tried to convince his mother to let him go, saying that he would be sure to study in China for his doctorate degree. He just wanted to explore for a bit, he explained, wanted to meet new people and make new friends. 

He had skipped one grade in elementary and one in middle school, so when he showed up to high school, he was 12 instead of the age 14. Technically, he could have completed high school a year earlier, too, but he spread out his classes instead, his first time rebelling against his parents. 

And now this was the second time. 

It felt weird, not having his parents here, if Jungwoo was honest. They had an exhaustive set of rules that he had to follow, he could never leave the house, had to sleep at 9 PM and spend free time doing extra reading. But here… he didn’t have any of that here. 

The first night in his dorm alone (his parents didn’t like the idea of him having a roommate, so they made him apply for a single room instead) he couldn’t sleep at all, so he decided to go out out and eat, which is where he found his cousin Si Cheng and his boyfriend at the ramen restaurant. A coincidence, indeed, that he and Si Cheng were studying in the same university, but a good one.

Si Cheng was his favorite cousin, in Jungwoo’s opinion. Haomei and Nina were really stuck up and always bullied him when he was little. Changchang only followed her mother’s footsteps, and Xiuying, her brother, also liked to pretend Jungwoo didn’t exist. The only two cousins that Jungwoo didn’t know very well were Chen Ling and Guangxi, but that’s because they were in Taiwan and Jungwoo’s mother didn’t like Taiwanese people either. 

He liked Si Cheng a lot, but he felt like he was already annoying the latter. His cousin had a lot of friends and even a boyfriend, so Jungwoo was purposely making himself look more busy than necessary; the last thing he needed was for Si Cheng to think he was a little kid who couldn’t take care of himself. 

So, when Jungwoo walked into the practically empty cafeteria, he grabbed the first meal he could find, a bowl of Chow Mein noodles, and sat down at an empty small table next to the walls, meant for two people. 

He sat there eating his food quietly, looking around. He couldn’t recognize anyone yet; it was a pretty large university, after all. He still didn’t know anyone in his dorm, either, and clubs didn’t start for a while, so he was pretty much on his own for now. 

While taking a sip of his water, Jungwoo then felt something hit his back, warm liquid spilling all over his clothes.

“Oh my god, I’m  _ so  _ sorry!! I promise I wasn’t being an idiot, I was watching where I was going, I’m sure-”

“Lucas, I  _ told  _ you not to skip!” Jungwoo turned around to see a tall man behind him, another guy catching up to him. “Jesus Christ, Lucas, now look at what you did-”

“I don’t need a lecture, Kun,” the guy named Lucas said in Mandarin instead of Korean. “Don’t make me look bad in front of him.”

“Says the guy who left him  _ still covered in soup _ ,” Kun pointed out. 

Lucas turned to face Jungwoo again, already having forgotten that he was there. “I’m really sorry,” Lucas said in Korean again, grabbing a handful of napkins from a nearby table. “I’ll help clean up, I swear-”

“It’s fine, don’t worry,” Jungwoo said in Mandarin, taking off his jacket, which thankfully took most of the soup. He just did laundry Sunday, so he was going to have to wash it by hand tonight. “My classes are done for the day, so…”

Lucas stopped, eyes wide. “You’re Chinese.”

Jungwoo shrugged. “Chinese-born Korean, but… I guess.”

“Lucas, can you please clean up,” Kun reminded him, grabbing the napkins from Lucas and starting to clean off the mess on the floor. “I don’t need the university yelling at me again.”

“Oh, right, I’m  _ so  _ sorry-”

***

  
  


The five boys were standing in front of them, which meant it was time to begin the lesson. 

“Yuta, you talk to them,” Jaehyun whispered harshly to Yuta, ignoring the curious eyes the freshmen were giving them. “I can’t talk to kids.”

“They’re  _ college  _ students, Jaehyun,” Yuta reminded him. 

“Shut the fuck up, guys,” Mark said, stepping in front. “Okay, so, uh… hi- wait a second, Jaehyun, you’re not even in 127! Legally-”

“I can add myself if I want,” Jaehyun said. “Plus, you  _ know  _ Taeyong and Haechan are doing something together right now, you’re  _ dating  _ one of them-”

“While these two fight, do you guys want to go around and introduce yourself?” Yuta said to the freshmen, praying that they won’t report them to the university for inappropriate conduct or some shit. 

Four of them stepped back, leaving the last one standing by himself. 

“Uh… I’m Jaemin,” he said. “Hi.” He pointed at someone behind him, the shortest member. “You go next.”

“Wait, why me??” the guy exclaimed. “I don’t like talking to strangers!!” 

One of the other freshmen started mumbling something in Mandarin, which Yuta was proud to say that he understood completely. Oh, how he was going to gloat about it to Si Cheng for the rest of the day, Yuta  _ knew  _ that his Mandarin wasn’t  _ completely  _ shit.

“I’m Jeno!” One of them exclaimed, grinning. His eyes looked to be smiling, too, which Yuta had  _ no  _ idea was possible. 

Mark started snapping his fingers. “I’m pretty sure my boyfriend knows you-”

“Mark, we went  _ over this today!!”  _ Jaehyun exclaimed. 

“No,  _ you  _ went over that- anyways, do you know a guy named Haechan?” Mark asked Jeno. 

Jeno nodded. “Yeah, I know Donghyuck!! He used to go to my high school.”

“Oh shit, we went to the same high school?” Mark asked, confused. “Wait, me and Haechan weren’t in good terms-”

“Anyways!!” Jaehyun yelled over everyone. “I created a beat for today’s lesson called Chewing Gum, let’s get started, shall we?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> enjoy that smut scene fellas while everything is going smooth!! you're going to hate me soon enough
> 
> i think im going back to updating regularly on my stories, sorry for the long drought!! remember to stay safe during the protests and the pandemic, and support wayv's comeback!!
> 
> (also if you guys dont get the joke with yuta's brother or jungwoo's taiwanese cousins then clearly i have failed you)


	4. This Friday Night

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> theres drunkness in this chapter, fyi

“Sometimes I wish we spoke Spanish,” Ten said to Si Cheng at their favorite Hispanic restaurant, sighing. “I don’t know why they’re called  _ tacos al pastor _ .”

“I am  _ not  _ about to learn Spanish,” Si Cheng yelled at him, staring angrily at his menu. “It’s already a struggle with Korean,  _ and  _ I’m learning Japanese  _ and  _ every non-Caucasian is always told to study English because we live in a society dominated by middle class, straight white males, I do not have time for Spanish-”

Ten rolled his eyes. “ _ Someone  _ learned something in their minorities seminar.”

“Ten,” Si Cheng said, staring at him. “We  _ are  _ minorities. A Thai and a Chinese in Korea?”

“I don’t want to think today,” Ten complained, taking another sip of his Mexican rice drink. (He thought it was called bachata, but he had been informed that that was a dance, so now he had no clue.) “It’s Friday, I’m going to get wasted.”

Si Cheng scoffed. “Guess we’re official college students today.”

“‘Kay, you’re going to help me get rid of this vodka we have in our apartments,” Ten informed him. “I’ll even buy your nasty raspberry lemonade.”

“I'm going to make it like 2% vodka, don’t test me,” Si Cheng warned him, right when the waitress came over, asking for their order. “Oh, can I have… uh, three  _ tamales de barbacoa _ -”

“What even  _ is  _ that?” Ten asked. “Ooh, I want 5 shrimp arepas, please?”

Si Cheng harshly whispered to him, “you always get that, Chittaphon.”

“Excuse me for not knowing what’s on the menu,” Ten complained. “I don’t speak Spanish and I don’t get the Korean translations-”

“Then why don’t  _ you  _ learn Spanish?” Si Cheng asked him. “Be productive for once.”

“I am  _ totally  _ productive,” Ten argued. He took out his phone and started texting someone. “Look, I’ll even find us a party to go to for tonight-”

“We can’t  _ both  _ go to a party and get drunk.” Si Cheng brought his glass of lemonade closer to him, taking a sip through the straw. “I have to wake up early in the morning for a dance practice.”

“Already? You just started classes this week!”

Si Cheng sighed. “Ten, you know it’s hard if I want to be able to be a professional dancer in traditional dance,” he explained, taking another sip. His glass was almost empty and the waitress just left, so he’ll have to wait a while to get a refill. “But I guess that’s what my parents have always been telling me that.”

Ten reached out to grab Si Cheng’s hand, giving it a light squeeze. “Can I please have the pass?”

“Go ahead.”

“Fuck your parents,” Ten said. “Even if you so-call ‘fail’ in life, that doesn’t mean you as a person failed.”

“I’m pretty sure I’m going to fail in life,” Si Cheng admitted. 

“And that is  _ not  _ a problem, don’t do things because you expect it to be perfect- yo, fuck, my arepas are here.”   
  


  
***

  
  


Mark opened the door to the apartment, only to almost close it again. “Can you  _ not  _ make out on the couch?!” he screamed. 

Taeyong pulled apart from Jaehyun’s lips, breathing heavily as Jaehyun merely shrugged. “I made tacos,” he said, pointing at some food at the kitchen table.”

“You are forgiven,” Mark said, entering the apartment and closing the door behind him while Taeyong and Jaehyun continued to make out.

Yuta came out of his room all dressed up, wearing his favorite dark wash jeans and black button-up shirt. His hair was styled with whatever he had dumped on it and had his black combat boots on, with eyeliner to top it off. “Literally where have you been all day?” he asked Mark, rolling up his sleeves. 

“I was at the library with Haechan, he was crying about a math class,” Mark explained, grabbing one of the tacos. “Jaehyun, you bought these at taco bell.”

“Yeah, he’s busy, he’s not going to answer you,” Yuta said, watching how Taeyong and Jaehyun continued to make out. “Pretty sure they’re going to fuck here anyways-”

“I can see that.” Mark took a bite out of his tacos, the taco shell immediately breaking. “Dammit it,” he said with food in his mouth. 

Yuta grabbed one of the burritos and took a bite. “It’s okay but you guys do know authentic Hispanic cuisine exists in this place, right?”

“Yuta, we live in xenophobic South Korea,” Mark reminded him. 

“So? Si Cheng had some today, he gave me a free tamale,” Yuta added, taking another bite before returning to his room. “I’m about to leave to see him anyways.”

“ _ Someone’s  _ getting laid,” Mark muttered, looking at Jaehyun and Taeyong in the living room. “Or two. Wait, four?”

A phone alarm went off, causing Taeyong to pull apart from Jaehyun, getting off his lap. “I have to go back to my dorm,” he said, turning off his alarm. “I have an assignment due later.”

Jaehyun pouted. “We only got to make out for five minutes-”

“YO, JAEHYUN, DID YOU GRAB MY COLOGNE AGAIN?!” Yuta screamed, stomping his way into the living room. “I NEED IT!” 

“Oh, god, not your cologne meltdowns again,” Jaehyun muttered, getting off the couch. “Give me a minute, I’ll go get it- Taeyong, let me kiss you goodbye.”

Taeyong rolled his eyes, grinning. “You’re so cheesy.”

“I did eat a lot of cheddar cheese today,” Jaehyun admitted, pressing a light kiss on his boyfriend’s mouth. “Remember we’re eating breakfast tomorrow.”

“Keyword,  _ breakfast,  _ Jaehyun, which means before noon,” Taeyong reminded him, opening the door to leave. “Bye!!”

“Tell Haechan to stop working at the math worksheet!” Mark yelled at Taeyong, who waved in response until he left, closing the door behind him. “God, I hate math.”

“Isn’t mathematics your minor or some shit?” Jaehyun asked.

Mark shrugged. “So? That doesn’t mean I have to like the classes in the minor."

Yuta took another burrito from the table, taking a bite while scrolling through his phone. “Jaehyun, hurry up, I have to pick up Si Cheng in five minutes.”

“You picking up your boyfriend means you walking down two flights of stairs, but go off I guess,” Jaehyun said, walking towards the hallway to go to his room.

“I stand corrected, it’s one person getting laid tonight,” Mark said. 

Yuta frowned. “I’m not sleeping with him tonight, although we  _ are  _ going clubbing."

“Then don’t come barging into the living room at 4 am, crying about caterpillars,” Mark finished.

Jaehyun came out of his room, handing the cologne bottle back to Yuta. “Can you order me another bottle, it turns Taeyong on.”

“That’s fucking nasty, have fun losers,” Mark said, heading into the kitchen. He opened the cupboard and took out a plate, stacking all the taco bell food on it. “I’m going to eat while crying.”

“Yuta’s not getting laid because he has no more lube and is using Vaseline to jerk off now,” Jaehyun said, grabbing a soft taco from Mark. “Don’t take all of them, dammit.”

“Okay, how  _ the fuck _ do you know I ran out of lube?!” Yuta yelled at him. 

Jaehyun shrugged, taking a bite. “I saw the tissues next to your bed while stealing your cologne.”

“Oh, god, I’m  _ so  _ glad I’m saving myself for marriage,” Mark muttered, taking his plate to his room. “Now shut up, bitches.”

“YOU were the biggest slut in this house!!” Jaehyun yelled at him. “You are  _ not  _ a virgin!!”

“NO, but Haechan is, now shut up, I have to write an essay!” Mark slammed the door to his room, leaving Yuta and Jaehyun alone. 

Yuta turned on his phone. “Well, will you look at the time, I got to go,” he said, dashing to the foyer. “Don’t fight with Mark again!” 

“I know you told me earlier you weren’t going to drink, but call me if you change your mind to pick you up,” Jaehyun called out after him. “I’m probably going to pull an all-nighter.”

“Yeah, you’re  _ definitely  _ going to get knocked out during your breakfast with Taeyong,” Yuta muttered. He had no desire to drink tonight, as he wanted to take care of Si Cheng, who was being dragged to have some shots with his best friend. “Bye, dumb ass!”

  
  


***

  
  


In Yuta’s defense, the plan  _ was  _ to take care of Si Cheng, but he thinks he made it worst. 

Si Cheng looked marvelous, as usual; he had on a soft, white sweater, paired with light wash genes and his converse, hair parted to the side. Sometimes Yuta wondered how the hell did he get this angel to become his boyfriend. 

The night had started with Si Cheng and Ten pregaming in their apartment, Yuta talking along with them drinking his water while Johnny stayed passed out on the couch, having fallen asleep around 9 PM. 

Yuta already knew Si Cheng wasn’t much of a drinker; the most alcohol he will have is two glasses, and that was on rare occasions. Ten was usually the one who got drunk, stumbling everywhere as Si Cheng dragged him along back to their place. 

However, Yuta already knew something was wrong when Si Cheng took three shots of vodka straight up, not even mixing it with his raspberry lemonade that he loved to drink. He didn’t say anything, though; this was supposed to be a fun night, and Yuta was supposed to be sober anyways in case Si Cheng and Ten got intoxicated and to make sure no one took advantage of them. 

They made their way to the club, where Ten wanted to dance while Si Cheng wanted more drinks first. He nursed his soju bottle for a while, Yuta drinking his usual coke, talking loudly to Yuta since the club was packed full of people. Eventually, though, Si Cheng finished his drink and Yuta took him out to the dance floor to dance, their bodies closed to each other with their arms wrapped around each other’s necks, laughing as they danced together in beat. 

Si Cheng had more bottles of soju and even tequila shots, so at one point while dancing with Yuta, his dancing was more like swaying, his head struggling to stay up. If Yuta was honest, he had never seen Si Cheng drunk before. 

“Do you want to sit down for a bit?” Yuta asked him, holding onto Si Cheng’s waist to make sure he didn’t fall. “You should have some water.”

“No, no water,” Si Cheng slurred, giggling. “I don’t want water. Only dance.”

“You need to drink water if you want to continue to dance, or you’ll faint,” Yuta explained, grabbing a nearby tipsy Ten’s arm, thankful that he wasn’t as wasted as Si Cheng. “You, too, you guys need some rest.”

“I don’t know about you, but I’m having the time of my life!” Ten yelled, pumping a fist in the air. “Si Cheng, what happened to you, my dear friend, you can’t even stand!”

Si Cheng was, in fact, stumbling next to Yuta, bumping into him too many times to count. “I don’t know what happened to me,” Si Cheng mumbled, rubbing his eyes. “Don’t know.

Yuta led them to a nearby table, asking a nearby waiter for some glasses of water. “Rest a bit so that we can continue dancing,” he persuaded the two. “The night is still young, after all.”

Si Cheng hummed, slamming his head on the table. “Night, night fun.”

“Winwinie, my dear, you’re so funny!” Ten laughed, pulling Si Cheng back up. “The night  _ is  _ fun.”

The waiter came back with the glasses and some straws, which Yuta gave to the two drunks. “Drink water before we dance more.”

“No water,” Si Cheng complained. “I need to drink more.”

“You can drink more later if you want, but drink some water for now,” Yuta persisted. “And I’ll give you a kiss.”

Si Cheng shook his head. “No, no water, no kiss, I’m too ugly,” he said, bursting into laughter. “Ugly and a failure.”

Yuta frowned. “You’re not ugly,” he said, pushing a strand of hair away from Si Cheng’s face. “You’re pretty and handsome, which is why I want to kiss you.”

“No kiss,” Si Cheng said. “But sex, maybe, I want sex with boyfriend.” He tried to climb onto Yuta’s lap, his head hitting against the wall. “Ow.”

Ten drank all of his water in one go, resting his head on the table afterwards. “I’m tired, I want a nap.”

“Si Cheng, no, get off of me,” Yuta said, hugging Si Cheng to make him stay in place. “We have not discussed sex while your drunk, and that conversation will happen when your sober.”

“I want you to make love to me,” Si Cheng complained, throwing his leg on Yuta’s lap. “Please. You can use me, I just wanna feel useful for once, please.”

“Later,” Yuta told him, even though he knew they were not going to. “Maybe later.” 

Si Cheng pulled away, looking down. “See? Failure. I’m a failure.”

“Love, you’re not a failure-”

“Yes I am,” Si Cheng pouted, crossing his arms as he scooted away from Yuta. “Failure of a  _ boyfriend,  _ failure of a  _ dancer,  _ and failure of a son.”

Yuta frowned. So  _ that’s  _ what this was all about; he’ll have to remember to ask Si Cheng in the morning. “You’re not a failure,” Yuta reminded him. “You’re the best boyfriend I could have ever had.”

“No, not a good boyfriend,” Si Cheng argued, taking out his phone. “I’m not a good boyfriend.”

“Si Cheng, you still have to drink your water,” Yuta said, trying to switch the topic. If there’s something that he’s learned through experience is that you can’t reason with drunk people. “If you drink this water, we can dance again.”

“No, bad dancer,” Si Cheng said, placing his phone on his ear, head slamming against the wall behind him again. “Eomma!! It’s me, your failure of a son-”

“Si Cheng, no!” Yuta tried to lean over Si Cheng and take the phone from him. “No drunk calls, Si Cheng!”

Si Cheng had placed the call on speaker, so Yuta was able to hear his mother from the other end. “Si Cheng, what type of introduction is that?” she yelled at him in Mandarin, which Yuta was thankful for being able to understand. “Why are you calling so late, did you remember to take your meds-”

“No, no meds,” Si Cheng said in Korean, hiccuping. “Lots of drinks. Lots. I’m thirsty.”

“Si Cheng,  _ this  _ is what you do during your free time?” his mother said in Korean. “This is why you didn’t want to study in China?”

“I know, I am bad son,” he said. “Why am I a bad son, I don’t want to be a bad son-”

“Si Cheng, pass me to someone coherent, I can’t understand this nonsense of yours-”

“Why don’t you love me?” Si Cheng blurted, kicking Yuta away from. “Yuta, don’t touch me please.”

Yuta was still trying to grab the phone from Si Cheng, but it was no use; there was no way he could do it without hurting him. Plus, his mother already knew he was drunk-calling her anyways. “Si Cheng, please hang up,” Yuta pleaded with him. “I’ll do whatever you want, please.”

“No, I’m a bad boyfriend,” Si Cheng persisted. “And bad son, so mother and father don’t love me.”

“Si Cheng, I don’t know where you're getting these ideas-” his mother tried to reason with him.

“No, no love me,” Si Cheng continued. “I miss you during camp those years ago. They said I was broken. I’m broken, mother, I am bad son.”

“Si Cheng-”

“Like you said to your friends, I am stupid, weak, fag of a son,” Si Cheng cried out. “I just want love!! No one loves me, I don’t deserve it-”

Yuta tickled the latter, surprising Si Cheng causing him to drop his phone. Taking his chance, Yuta lunged for the phone, immediately ending the call before stuffing the phone in his pocket. “Finish your water, Winwin,” he said, pushing the glass towards his boyfriend. “Finish it, please-”

“Where did my phone go?!” Si Cheng cried out, knocking the glass of water all over him. His clothes got wet, yet he took no note of that. “I want love from my mother!! Why can’t I have it?!”

Yuta grabbed Si Cheng’s waist and struggled to pull him out of his spot. “Your mother loves you,” Yuta said, doubting himself. “Come on, I’ll give you the drinks and sex that you wanted-”

“No sex, love, I want love!!” Si Cheng yelled, sobbing as he let Yuta pull him out. “I just want love!! Why is that too hard?! Why can’t I have love, what did I do wrong?!”

Ten woke up, his eyes red as he yawned. “Love? I love Winwin, he’s my best friend.”

“No love, my friend doesn’t love me,” Si Cheng cried, hiccuping again. “No love, I don’t get love-”

Yuta grabbed Ten out of his seat, the latter complying much more than Si Cheng. “Come on, I’ll take you guys home,” he said, ignoring the outbursts of the two. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've said the dumbest shit when I'm drunk, this is like all based from my experiences, oops


	5. This Situation Needs Rice Crackers

_ Renxi _

_ Today, 12:23 AM _

_ Dong Si Cheng, answer your phone _

_ Si Cheng _

_ Answer me, child _

_ You have a (5) missed calls from Renxi _

_ DONG SI CHENG _

_ Today, 7:29 AM  _

_ You’re in hot water next time we see you _

_ Don’t be a disrespectful child, Si Cheng _

_ Si Cheng _

_ Dong Si Cheng, I said to ANSWER ME _

_ Today, 9:52 AM _

_ Your father wants to talk to you _

_ Si Cheng _

_ You really are a failure of a son _

  
  


***

Yuta woke up to the sound of gagging, only to discover that it was Si Cheng throwing up in the bathroom. 

He got up quickly, eyes squeezed almost completely shut as there was a lot of light in the room, and went into the bathroom, where Si Cheng was hunched over the toilet bowl, puking his guts out. He sat down next to him on the floor, patting his back softly. 

“Don’t hold it back in,” Yuta whispered, ruffling Si Cheng’s hair back. “It’s fine.”

Si Cheng continued for almost another minute before stopping, trying to spit out the disgusting aftertaste in his mouth. “I hate throwing up,” he mumbled to himself. 

“Same, but yet I still drink,” Yuta admitted, grabbing Si Cheng’s arms to help him get up. “Here, let’s rinse your mouth with water and brush your teeth, kay?”

Last night, Yuta had dropped the two of them off, helping Ten get on his bed before aiding Si Cheng. Drunk, drunk Si Cheng, however, clung onto Yuta and wouldn’t let go, crying and sobbing about how he was a bad boyfriend. Yuta decided to just stay on his bed with him, exhausted, and who knows what time he actually fell asleep. 

Si Cheng rinsed his mouth for a long time, spitting out the water constantly while making gagging noises. He put on a shit ton of toothpaste on his toothbrush and scrubbed his teeth as much as he could, before spitting it out and rinsing his mouth with a cup of mouthwash as well. 

When he turned off the sink, Yuta asked him “Does your head hurt?”

“I feel like I’m dying,” Si Cheng answered truthfully, rubbing his forehead vigorously. “Actually, I’d rather die.”

“Here, you should go back to sleep,” Yuta suggested, grabbing Si Cheng’s hand and leading him back to his bed. “I’ll get you some Advil and some Gatorade from my flat, I’ll be back soon, okay?”

Si Cheng nodded, crawling into his bed and pulling the sheets over him. “I’m sorry.”

“If you weren’t like this, it would be much concerning,” Yuta said. “Trust me, it’s fine.”

He didn’t hear Si Cheng say anything else, so Yuta left the room and out the apartment, running upstairs to his own apartment. It was moments like these that he was glad that they lived in the same apartment complex. 

He unlocked the door, ignoring the sight of a snoring Jaehyun on the couch, and went straight to the cabinets, taking a bottle of Advil and the Gatorade, which is supposed to help replenish any lost electrolytes after you drink. He didn’t know the science behind it, but it was better than regular water, that was for sure. 

After he grabbed them, he left the flat and ran back downstairs to Si Cheng’s place, opening the door and heading straight to Si Cheng’s room where Yuta was pretty sure Si Cheng wasn’t under the covers. 

One look at the opened door at the bathroom, where he heard more retching sounds, made him drop the stuff on the bed and run after Si Cheng, the only thing on his mind is wanting his boyfriend to be better. 

  
  


***

“I can’t believe I’m having breakfast at 3 PM,” Si Cheng muttered, taking another bite of his ramen. “My head still hurts.”

Yuta had gotten ramen and chicken for them to eat together, as he wanted to stay with Si Cheng who was planning on staying the day in. Ten was studying at the library with some classmates and Johnny was at work, so thankfully it was just the two of them alone, since Yuta wanted to talk to Si Cheng privately about some stuff. 

It was also a good thing that Si Cheng hasn’t bothered to check for his phone, which Yuta put in his nightstand drawer. Who knows what type of messages Si Cheng’s mother must have sent him by now. 

“You’ve never had a hangover before?” Yuta asked, curious. “Not drunk or anything?”

Si Cheng shook his head. “I’ve drunk alcohol but have only gotten tipsy like once, and even then I was able to remember everything that happened the day before. I can’t remember anything about yesterday, though, that really bothers me.”

“You told me there was a scientific reason, right?” Yuta pushed his empty ramen bowl aside and grabbed a chicken leg, placing it on a plastic plate before grabbing some hot sauce. “Something about the brain and all that shit.”

“Oh, about how when drunk you lose the ability to make memories.” Si Cheng took another bite of his ramen, swallowing before continuing. “God, I can’t think today.”

“Good thing it’s Saturday,” Yuta joked. “You don’t have to think.”

Si Cheng hummed, not saying anything else, so they continued to eat quietly, Yuta not wanting to bother Si Cheng and his thinking (well, whatever he was doing in his head that wasn’t thinking, anyways.)

Some minutes passed and they both finished, Yuta taking a last sip of his coke before carrying the trash to the kitchen. “I can clean up, don’t worry-”

“No, it’s fine, I don’t want to be a burden.” Si Cheng pushed himself away from the table and stacked the ceramic bowls, walking to the kitchen and placing them in the sink. “I got it, you can sit down-”

“It’s not a burden, you have a headache, it’s fine-”

“Yuta, I said I can do it,” Si Cheng said harshly, turning on the faucet to wash the bowls. “You’re treating me as I’m some type of failure.”

And there it was. 

Yuta leaned back against the counter, hands resting behind him. “Winwin,” he said firmly. “Can we talk?”

Si Cheng froze, his hands clutching the ceramic bowl tighter. “What did I do last night?” he whispered softly. 

“Nothing- well, actually, that would be a lie,” Yuta tried to explain. “You didn’t hurt anyone- actually, give me a second-”

Yuta heard a crash, surprised to see Si Cheng’s hands shaking, the bowl shattered in pieces in the sink. “What happened?”

“Hey, calm down, it’s nothing serious- well- ah shit, Si Cheng, please just listen to me- Si Cheng.” Yuta wrapped his hands around Si Cheng’s waist, pulling him closer as the latter was trying to leave the kitchen. “Winwin.”

Si Cheng was trembling, so Yuta had to pat his head, playing with his hair to calm him down. “Hey, calm down, it’s fine, it’s fine Si Cheng, trust me, you just had a drunken conversation with someone and I’m concerned, okay?”

“About?” Si Cheng asked, giving up on leaving Yuta’s grasp.

“Sit down first, okay?” Yuta led Si Cheng to the kitchen table and helped him sit down. Si Cheng wouldn’t stop shaking, though. “Calm down, it’s not bad, just some stuff you said that’s got me… worried-"

“Worried? What could I  _ possibly _ say that makes you get  _ worried? _ ” Si Cheng asked. “Yuta, maybe you just misunderstood-”

Yuta sighed, sitting down across from Si Cheng. He grabbed his boyfriend’s hand, running his thumb over the smooth skin. “You drunk dialed your mom last night,” he said slowly, pausing when he noticed Si Cheng’s eyes widened. “And you were saying stuff like being a failure and wanting love and, you know…”

Si Cheng let go of Yuta’s hands, rubbing his face vigorously before resting them under his chin, looking out the window. “I had an argument with her yesterday,” Si Cheng mumbled. “So I just… I don’t know, okay? I figured if she’s gonna hate me for anything, then might as well not…  _ hold back _ ,” he said, his voice cracking at the end. “I’ve always done everything to please them and it’s never enough-"

“I’m sure they love you,” Yuta said. “Maybe they just have a weird way of showing it-”

“No they don’t.” Si Cheng shook his head, leaning back. He still refused to look at Yuta. “They don’t-”

“Si Cheng, I’m sure, it’s just natural for parents to want to know about their kids whereabouts and always say no to sex and alcohol, you know, it’s the cliche, right?” Yuta rested his arms on the table, staring at him. 

A tear fell down Si Cheng’s face, so he anxiously tried to wipe it away with his shirt sleeve. “You think they loved me when they sent me to a conversion camp?” he whispered. 

_ I miss you during camp. They said I was broken. _

“I didn’t know that,” Yuta. “Si Cheng, I’m sorry, I-”

“Don’t worry about it,” Si Cheng muttered. “It was before I was run over and that whole incident in high school and- yeah, the whole… thing,” he gestured, standing up from the chair. “I should find my phone and apologize to her before she takes a flight here and smacks me.”

“Your phone is in… the… nightstand,” Yuta pointed out, his voice faltering at the end watching Si Cheng head to his room. “Si Cheng, wait-”

Si Cheng walked into his room and found his phone in the drawer, turning it on to see over 10 missed calls from his mother and more than 50 messages. He doesn’t know if it’s a good thing or a bad thing that he doesn’t remember what happened last night, but even though all the alcohol was out of his system, he was getting deja vu of wanting to throw it all up again. 

Sliding open his phone, Si Cheng pressed on his mother’s contact info and held the phone to his ear, waiting for her to respond. He noticed Yuta standing by the doorway but didn’t say anything, not really in the mood to talk to him right now.

His mother picked up on the third ring, already screaming like usual. “ _ Dong Si Cheng, why have you not been answering me?!”  _ she yelled in Wenzhounese.

“ _ I’m sorry, Mama, my phone ran out of battery,”  _ Si Cheng lied.  _ “I saw that you called and Yuta told me that I said stuff last night and-” _

_ “Who told you to drink alcohol?”  _ His mother lectured him. “ _ Is this why you came to Korea? Learning that awful language and hanging out with- _ ”

“Korean is not an awful language,” Si Cheng switched to Korean. “I know you only learned it for business, but I… I like learning it, and I like the friends I’ve made here-”

“ _ They’re pressuring you to be someone you aren’t _ !” she exclaimed, refusing to speak in Korean. “ _ You’re not my son, my Dong Si Cheng, I raised you to be someone better-” _

Si Cheng made a fist with his free hand, his nails digging into his palm as he tried to control his anger. “ _ Mama, I’m sorry, I just called you to apologize, whatever I said last night, I didn’t mean it- _ ”

“ _ You’re supposed to be more responsible, Si Cheng!”  _ she yelled at him, her voice laced with anger. “ _ I didn’t raise you to be drinking and saying gibberish, what about your meds, you know your not supposed to be drinking alcohol with them-” _

“Forget about the meds, mother!” Si Cheng yelled at her. ‘Can’t you go one phone call without mentioning them? One phone call about you  _ not  _ showing your disappointment in me? I’m trying to say sorry and you’re making it hard for me!”

“ _ Don’t raise your tone with me, _ ” she warned him. “ _ I’m your mother _ -”

“And I’m your son!!” Si Cheng yelled, leaning his head against the wall. “Why are you telling all my business to Aunt Ximei, you know how she is!”

“ _ Don’t talk about you aunt like that- _ ”

“Then don’t talk to me like that!!” 

Yuta did not want to get involved in the conversation, but he couldn’t bear seeing Si Cheng getting frustrated. “Si Cheng, maybe you should hang up and talk to her later-”

“No,  _ you  _ said that she loves me,” Si Cheng reminded him, looking at him straight in the eye. “If she loved me, then this is just a normal fight with her son-”

“ _ Don’t tell me you have that boyfriend of yours with you-” _

Si Cheng took his phone off his ear, putting it on speaker. “He can hear you eomma, and he knows Wenzhounese,” he lied. “Say whatever you want.”

“ _ Si Cheng,”  _ his mother said.  _ “I’m really disappointed in you _ .”

“Let me guess, you said this at least ten times in our messages?” Si Cheng opened the messages app, scrolling through the string of messages only to stop when he saw one sent at 9:52 AM. 

_ You really are a failure of a son. _

“You know what, ma?” Si Cheng muttered quietly. “Just tell me if you love me and I’ll drop traditional dance.”

The phone line went silent, and Yuta watched how more tears fell down Si Cheng’s face. 

“Si Cheng,” she finally said in Korean. “You need to know that-”

“Be happy, Ma,” Si Cheng muttered. “If you despised me that much, just cut me off, I get it, okay? Don’t call me again.”

He pressed the red button, ending the call, and threw his phone on his bed, running his hands through his hair. “I guess that’s her way of showing how much she loves me, right?” he cried out. 

“Si Cheng, I really thought-” Yuta walked closer to Si Cheng, trying to wrap his arms around the latter, only for Si Cheng to push him away. “Si Cheng-”

“Can I be alone?” Si Cheng crossed his arms, looking out the window again. “Just leave, I- I just, the last thing I need to be is with others right now,” he mumbled. 

  
  


***

  
  


“Si Cheng, I brought rice crackers!” Ten shouted in the empty living room, setting the plastic bag on the couch for a moment. “Si Cheng?! I know you're here, you won’t respond to my messages!"

It was late in the evening, almost 10 PM. Johnny should be heading back to the flat any minute now, and Ten had done so much random shit today, from studying to attending some extra-credit event thing and- holy shit, did Si Cheng even go to his traditional dance meeting?

“Si Cheng, come on, let’s watch a movie or something!” Ten screamed again, taking off his shoes and grabbing the bag again before heading to the hallway. “Come on, I spent my whole Saturday doing  _ work _ ! Let’s just hang!”

He noticed Si Cheng’s door was locked, so he knocked on it aggressively, just knowing deep inside Si Cheng was staying up watching objects in the universe being compared with each other again. “Winwin!! I know you’re in there buddy-”

Si Cheng opened the door rapidly, startling Ten. His eyes were red and puffy, and he was still wearing the pajamas that he was wearing before Ten left at past noon. “Can I be alone, please?” Si Cheng asked. “I’m sorry, I’m not in the mood today-”

“Woah, what  _ happened  _ to you?” Ten shrieked, pushing the door open so that he could come in. “Don’t tell me-”

“No he didn’t, although I did argue with him,” Si Cheng interrupted him. “And also my mom. And I  _ also  _ blocked my mom and dad on everything and turned off my location, so…” he shrugged. “I’m just not feeling up for it today, please.”

Ten nodded. “Yeah, okay, I get it, it’s fine  _ but _ -” he lifted up the bag in his hand. “I brought you rice crackers.”

Si Cheng rolled his eyes. “You always think rice crackers solve everything.”

“Maybe not, but they help distract you.” He handed the bag to Si Cheng before backing away. “I’ll be in the living room if you need me, okay? Don’t hesitate, I’m serious.”

Si Cheng nodded, staring into the bag. “Yeah, I won’t, I promise,” he lied. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yall please dont hate me, I promise this fic is a happy one, this chapter was needed tho
> 
> also tw// death  
> please keep yohan iand tst in your thoughts, i hope he's happy now and that tst has support


	6. Oh, Yeah, College Sucks

“-so yeah, I’m not talking with her,” Si Chang finished explaining to his therapist. “I blocked her on everything and I’m pretty sure she would have disowned me anyways, so…” he shrugged. “Yeah.”

His therapist nodded. “Yeah, so it seems like you had a rough weekend, right?” He asked in that voice all therapists used to pry more information from you, acting all concerned and shit.

Si Chang was  _ so  _ not in the mood to talk to anyone. He ignored Yuta and Ten for the weekend, staying in his room. He even skipped classes today on Monday even though school had just begun, but he did not want to see anyone right now. 

Ten, like the good friend he was (well, not like Si Chang saw him as a good friend at that moment), told him to go to the counseling center today even though his appointment was Thursday, and Si Chang didnt have the power to argue with him, so he came trodding to the clinic in his flannel pajamas and torn t-shirt and sat in the waiting room for half an hour until his therapist finally had free time to see him.

“Do you think the meds are working?” his therapist asked him. “Or should we bump up the dose?”

Si Chang shook his head. “No, I’m just in a bad mood, I’m sure it’ll go away,” he lied. He’s always bullshitted to his therapist and will keep doing it. 

His therapist nodded. “Well, hopefully things get better with your family.”

Yeah, right. “Hopefully,” Si Cheng muttered.

  
  


***

“Dude, you’re tiring yourself out with all that dancing,” Jaehyun told Yuta. “And the freshmen haven’t even come yet, we have fifteen minutes till class starts-“

“If you really want to know, I had a fight with Winwin,” Yuta said, ignoring Jaehyun as he continued practicing, looking at himself in the mirror. “I’m not in the mood.”

Jaehyun sighed, sitting down on the floor against the mirror, watching Yuta dance. “Look, stupid, I know you were in a bad mood the entire weekend but you can’t be like this forever-”

The door of the practice room was slammed open, revealing Mark eating a bag of cheetos. “‘Sup guys,” he said, trotting in. “The session starts soon-”

“You  _ really  _ don’t know how to knock, do you?” Jaehyun yelled at him. 

Mark shrugged. “It’s not like I was going to find people fucking in here, so no, I don’t care about knocking.”

“Well,  _ somehow,  _ you seem to enter my room unannounced when Taeyong and I are fucking, so who’s the real hypocrite know-“

“Can you guys stop arguing, I’m not in the mood to deal with you guys today,” Yuta said, rubbing his temples with his palms. “And hurry up, Mark, the freshmen will be here soon-“

“HELLO!” Haechan appeared in the doorway, behind Mark. “I’m going to be stalking you guys today.”

“Not gonna lie, babe, but that’s kind of the only thing you did in the past year,” Mark reminded him. 

Haechan rolled his eyes, smacking his arm. “Why do you have to be so negative all the time? Besides, thanks to you guys…” Haechan stepped aside, revealing one of the freshmen, Jeno if they could remember correctly, behind him. “I’m here to support Jeno!”

Mark slapped his chest, pretending it to hurt. “I am severely wounded,” he said, faking a cry. “I thought we had something special”

“Mark, you’re so goddamn stupid,” Yuta muttered, taking out his phone. “Oh god, I need class to finish quickly, I have an assignment due tonight.”

Jaehyun frowned. “I thought professors for seniors were supposed to be more relaxed?” he asked. 

Yuta scoffed at him. “Not when you’re in a business major like me,” he said. “I’m bound to have an office job for the rest of my life.”

“Uh, hello? Who won the dance off last year  _ and  _ got to go to America?” Mark reminded him. “That gave us some recognition, remember? If these freshmen get a high ranking at a contest we’ll get even more-“

“Uh, guys?” Jaehyun interrupted them, pointing at the doorway, where two more freshmen, the two youngest ones, arrived. “Hurry up your discussion, we have a class to teach.”

***

Si Cheng picked his food, mixing it all around the plate while Jungwoo spoke a little during dinner at the canteen. 

“There’s always people walking around campus,” Jungwoo was saying, excited. He had passed yet another Monday at the university and things weren’t difficult yet, leaving him extremely happy. Things here were  _ surely  _ going to be different from high school. “And I saw a flyer that said an event promoting the clubs here starts Thursday? Is that ever good?”

Si Cheng wasn’t really paying much attention to the conversation, but yet he didn’t tune out completely, figuring it would be rude to Jungwoo. Who would dare hurt a freshmen’s excitement, anyways? “I didn’t go freshman year,” Si Cheng admitted, picking up some rice with his chopsticks. “I didn’t really do anything the first two months.”

Jungwoo frowned. “Wait, really?” he said. Si Cheng was a naturally curious person, why wouldn’t he check things out? “Why not?”

“Just loneliness and freshmen jitters, I guess,” Si Cheng said, reaching out for his cup of lemonade. “Freshman year kind of sucked for me, to be honest, things didn’t get better until last year as a sophomore.”

“B-But Aunt Renxi praised you a lot,” Jungwoo said. “Saying how you handled the beginning of college very well.”

“Pfft, no, I failed like two of my first semester classes,” Si Cheng said. “It was a nightmare to be honest.”

He saw Jungwoo stare at his plate, looking kind of down before he spoke up again.“Don’t worry, Jungwoo, that won’t happen to you,” he reassured him. “Remember, you have me, Ten and Yuta, and even if it starts out bumpy, remember it always gets better,” he lied.

“I just don’t want to fail,” Jungwoo admitted. “And my whole family is counting on me, as the only son.”

“That’s their problem,” Si Cheng said flat out. “You’re not supposed to have children if you will only accept them being prodigies.”

Jungwoo grabbed a piece of his chicken. “Why do I get the feeling you're still mad at your mom,” he mumbled.

Si Cheng’s eyes widened. “Who told you I was mad at my mom?” he asked.

“Oh, Mama says she was talking to Aunt Renxi this weekend,” Jungwoo explained. “I didn’t get to know what happened, but she said you were- never mind, it’s fine-“

“No, tell me, I want to know,” Si Cheng asked him.

Jungwoo’s lips trembled. He shouldn’t have opened his mouth, now his mom was going to get mad at him. “I don’t want you to get mad.”

Si Cheng sighed. “Look, Jungwoo, I’m going to ask you this as a favor, okay?” 

Jungwoo nodded, letting him continue. “I don’t mind hanging out with you,” Si Cheng said truthfully. “But I need you to lie to your mom and say we don’t hang out at all.”

“I- I can’t lie to my mom,” Jungwoo said. “She’ll get mad at me, I’m not supposed to lie to her, and then Aunt Renxi will get mad at me too-“

“Jungwoo, I cut off communication with my mom,” Si Cheng explained, ignoring his surprised look. “I don’t want them to know anything about me anymore.”

“But why? Why aren’t you talking to your mama?” Jungwoo asked.

“It’s just… she always brings up the same stuff,” Si Cheng explained. “About how stupid my major is, how I shouldn’t be dating Yuta, living here in Korea, you know the usual, and I don’t like her talking to our family about it.”

Jungwoo nodded in understanding. “When Aunt Renxi told my mother where you went that summer,” he said, referencing the conversion camp, “my parents tried extra hard to make sure I didn’t turn out like, you know, but…”

“Oh no,  _ Jungwoo _ -“ Si Cheng reached out to grab Jungwoo’s hand, noticing a tear in the latter’s eye. “I’m sorry, I can’t believe my mom made it harder for you-“

“It’s fine, though, since Mama doesn’t know,” Jungwoo said. “I just don’t know why they’re like that, it just hurts-“

Si Cheng’s phone made a buzzing sound, signifying that someone was messaging him. 

“Who’s that?” Jungwoo asked, when Si Cheng grabbed his phone to check it. “Is it your mom?”

“No, I blocked her,” Si Cheng said, opening his phone. It was Yuta messaging him. “It’s Yuta, I haven’t been able to see him for the past two days.”

“Oh, that’s not good. I thought you guys loved to spend time with each other.”

“We do,” Si Cheng mumbled, typing a response to Yuta. Hopefully he wasn’t mad at him for Saturday. “I really do like being with him.”

***

_ Tofu Hater _

_ Today, 9:34 PM _

_ Hey _

_ Are you still mad at me? _

_ I understand, I’m sorry _

_ No _

_ I was never mad at you _

_ Just myself I guess _

_ Oh _

_ Well I’m still sorry for Saturday _

_ And Friday too _

_ It was my job to keep an eye on you _

_ It’s fine don’t worry about it _

_ Are you free right now?  _

_ I just want to see you _

_ You can break up over text, it’s fine _

_ I get it _

_ What the- _

_ Okay what made you think we were breaking up??? _

_ I mean I wouldn’t be surprised tbh _

_ Yeah I’m gonna go talk to you _

_ Are you at your apartment right now? _

_ In ten minutes, yeah _

_ I’ll go see you, okay? _

_ Don’t worry _

  
  


***

Yuta showed up to Si Cheng’s apartment fifteen minutes later, his sacred box of Japanese thin raspberry Oreos in hand (honestly, he had no idea how people liked the creme more than the cookie but that was an argument for another day.)

The one who opened the door was Ten, munching on a granola bar. “Oh, you’re here,” he said, opening the door wider for Yuta to come in. “I don’t know what happened since he won’t talk to me but please don’t start an argument with him-”

“God no, I’m not an asshole.” Yuta took off his shoes and followed Ten to the hallway, where he figured Si Cheng must be in his room. “I just want him to feel better.”

“That takes a while,” Ten admitted, knocking on Si Cheng’s door. “Your boyfriend is here and he brought you something!”

Yuta hid the package of oreos behind his back. “That was a surprise,” he said harshly under his breath. Of course Ten would ruin it.

The door opened, revealing Si Cheng in his pajamas, thankfully not the ones he had one Saturday. “Hey,” he mumbled, rubbing his eyes. Yuta noticed the room was dark, minus a lamp on the desk that was turned on. Si Cheng must have been studying. 

Yuta held up the Oreos. “I ordered them from Japan a while ago,” he said, handing it to Si Cheng. “You mentioned you liked raspberry-”

“Ew, fruit, okay I’m leaving,” Ten said, heading back to his room. “If I here one fight I’m tying you guys up-”

“Ten, I told you that I fought- uh, don’t mind him, he’s just being weird,” Si Cheng said, stepping backwards. “You can come in if you want, I was just doing homework.”

Yuta tried not to think about the assignment that’s due today at midnight. “Yeah, I just wanted to see how you were doing, to be honest.”

Si Cheng sat on his bed, hugging the watermelon pillow to his chest as Yuta shut the door behind them. “This fight had been going on since the end of summer, so I’m not surprised it came to this point.”

Yuta sat down next to him, placing a comforting hand on Si Cheng’s shoulder. “Hey, it’s fine, you weren’t wrong about anything-”

“I know, I just feel like a… I don’t know, like a bad child sometimes,” Si Cheng mumbled, hugging the pillow closer to him. “I turned out the opposite of everything they had dreamed of.”

“Well, that’s- I’m not even going to say anything.” Yuta let Si Cheng rest his head on his shoulder. “I don’t know about them, but  _ I  _ love your traditional dancing, you blow my mind every time you do a routine.”

“I- you’re just saying that,” Si Cheng said, hiding his face from Yuta. “You haven’t even seen me dance that many times.” 

“Pfft, better than my crappy dancing.” Yuta opened the package of oreos with his free hand and held it in front of Si Cheng’s face. “Here, have an oreo.”

Si Cheng rolled his eyes but took the cookie, taking a bite. “I forgot the Japanese don’t like the creme.”

“Hell no, the dark cookie part is better,” Yuta agreed. 

“You can pry my double stuff out of my cold, dead hands.”

Yuta slapped an arm over his chest, pretending to be wounded. “You hurt my heart, Si Cheng, I really thought we had something special.”

“Hey, I am a big fan of kit kats though, that should count for something.” Si Cheng laid back on the bed, staring at the ceiling. “The cons of having different opinions.”

“Great, now we’re having opinions on opinions.” Yuta laid down next to Si Cheng, rolling on his side to stare at his boyfriend. “I love it when you get philosophical,”

“I hate philosophy and that itself is a philosophy,” Si Cheng added, looking at Yuta. “Can you stay over tonight?”

Yuta, having completely forgotten about his assignment, wrapped his arms around Si Cheng. “Yeah, I’ll stay over tonight, don’t worry.”   
  
***

The next day during lunch with Mark, Yuta bit his lip staring at his grades. 

“It’s the second week and your already missing assignments,” Mark scolded him, taking a bite of his cheeseburger. “You’re so fucking stupid.”

“Well, whatever, not doing  _ one  _ assigment for an easy class won't kill me.” Yuta threw his phone down on the table, sighing. “It’s not even that class I’m worried about, we had a test Friday for one of my classes and I did really poorly on it, and it was the FIRST TEST!"

Mark gave him a look. “It was the first week, chill. Don’t stress about stuff like that.”

Yuta sighed again, grabbing his chopsticks for his sushi. Yes, he liked sushi for lunch, excuse him for being so refined. “I’m going to fail that class, I just know it, it’s so hard to pay attention-”

“Dude, calm down, like I’ve told you before, you just have to work on your time management skills,” Mark said, trying to calm him down. “And you need to plan more, you act so impulsive sometimes.”

“I’m a senior, though, I don’t have time to focus on that kind of stuff,” Yuta reminded him. “Actually, I don’t even focus.”

“Well, maybe you should go to the doctor,” Mark said, taking a sip of his coke. “That’s not healthy-”

“No.”

“Yes, Yuta, go-”

“NO! I don’t want to do more tests and shit,” Yuta said, crossing his arms. “I’m fine dealing with my anxiety, thank you very much.”

Mark shrugged. “I forget you have that, you seem normal-”

Yuta raised an eye at him.

“Not like that, idiot, I’m not calling you weird,” Mark corrected himself. “I just mean that you’re in control of it, well, other than your sleeping habits and your constant worrying, just hearing you gives me anxiety as well.”

“That’s not how it works but go off I guess,” Yuta said, aiming his chopstick at Mark. “Say one more stupid thing and I’ll stab your eyes.”

“Fuck no, idiot, I need them to see my handsome boyfriend,” Mark said. “Also, that reminds me of something Haechan wanted me to ask you, are you free Friday?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yeah we're getting back to the crack part of this fic lol   
> also!! regarding stuff like family issues, anxiety, etc, is not universal, these are all based off my friends and my experiences! dont treat this like the webmd site- actually that's not even a good site for all your information tbh


	7. Cookies

Thursday morning, Jungwoo found himself eating breakfast alone, since Si Cheng had an early morning class. Jungwoo thankfully had a bit more time, so he didn’t have to wake up at 6 am for a quick bowl of cereal in his single room. 

Honestly, he really wished he had a roommate, that would be more fun. A lot of people seemed terrified of having someone you didn’t know stuck with you and your belongings, but he thought it was a cool way to make a friend.

He really did miss out on high school, didn’t he?

Jungwoo felt really out of place here in the university. Almost everyone was guaranteed to be between eighteen to twenty three, and he was a sixteen year old, at the age where you barely learn how to drive. He can’t even drink yet, and here he was, hearing how kids around him partied a lot. Did college students party a lot? He thought it was a myth in movies. 

Si Cheng had told him that he rarely drinks, usually getting tipsy with his friend and never flat out drunk. He goes dancing sometimes with his boyfriend, but he doesn’t get wild or crazy, contrary to what Jungwoo’s mom believed. 

His mother didn’t really like Si Cheng, he realized, which was really awful. Si Cheng was one of the best people Jungwoo knew - not that he knew people anyways. 

Jungwoo stared at the bowl of rice he had gotten this morning and sighed. He did not like what was going on between his parents, his aunt and uncle and Si Cheng. Family problems were really sad. 

He picked up his chopsticks and took a bite of his rice, taking out his phone to keep track of the time. He has never been late to a class nor plan to, and he didn’t want it to happen in university anyways. 

Taking another bite, Jungwoo looked up from his tray to look around. There were some people in the canteen, not a lot since some people preferred to stay in. There were a lot of empty tables and Jungwoo sat at the side of an empty one, near the entrance of the canteen. 

He looked around for a while, not having anything to do, when suddenly someone familiar walked into the canteen doors and stared straight at Jungwoo, eyes widening. 

Jungwoo frowned. Why was this person looking at him? Did he know him from somewhere? He looked familiar, but Jungwoo couldn’t pinpoint where this person was from-

The guy waved his hands in front of him. “I’m so sorry for spilling soup on you last time,” he said. “Please don’t hate me-” he looked at the guy who entered the canteen with him. “Kun, can you pass me my cookies-”

“Lucas what does-”

Jungwoo gave them a small wave. “Uh… it’s fine, I forgot about the soup incident, to be honest-”

“NO, NO, I have to give you cookies as sorry!” Lucas unzipped the backpack on his friend Kun’s back, taking out a plastic bag that was indeed filled with cookies. “Here, you can have them,” he said, walking to Jungwoo’s table and placing them in front of his tray. 

They appeared to be chocolate chip cookies, Jungwoo realized, one of his favorites. He didn’t eat sweets much at his house since his mother wanted him to be tall and muscular, not pudgy or fat. “You really don’t have to give me cookies,” Jungwoo said, denying the gift. “I’m fine, thanks."

“He’s going to force you to have the cookies,” Kun said, shrugging. “Just take them, it’s fine.”

“Yeah, I was going to give them to my friend Renjun but I have more in my room and I don’t see him until later,” Lucas said, grinning. “They are a bit soft and I know people like crunchy cookies more but it was really fun to make them, I added  _ way  _ more chocolate chips than what the recipe said because people say you shouldn’t follow that-”

As the Lucas guy rambled, Jungwoo set down his chopsticks to open the bag of cookies in front of him. They did indeed feel soft, like Lucas said, and had an intense amount of chocolate chips on them. 

“-so I hope you like them,” Lucas finished. “Like I said, I’m really sorry.”

Jungwoo broke one of the cookies in half, taking a small bite. They were really delicious, he realized, really soft, and he could feel how the chocolate chips had been melting. “I like them,” he said, smiling. “They’re really good.”

Lucas grinned. “Really? My mom taught me how to bake cookies but she’s always been better than me at cooking and baking, you should try her cookies, especially her caramel pecan ones-”

“Lucas, I’m going to go get food real quick, I only have half an hour,” his friend Kun said, giving him his backpack. “Go save us a spot.”

“Kun, this place is empty,” Lucas pointed out, Jungwoo silently agreeing. “But I’ll save you a spot since I’m your best friend- don’t mind him, he’s weird and he doesn’t chocolate,” Lucas told Jungwoo. 

Jungwoo, who had taken another bite of the cookie, widened his eyes at Lucas’ statement. “He doesn’t like  _ chocolate? _ !” he asked, surprised. “What- what type of person  _ is  _ he?”

“EXACTLY!” Lucas exclaimed. “Kun is weird, but he says that he just doesn’t like the taste of it. Which is a shame because the guy he likes always gives him Ferrero Rochers and Kun has to force himself to eat it.”

“What’s a Ferrero Rocher?” Jungwoo asked, confused. He’s never heard of a Ferrero Rocher before.

“They’re like these chocolate candies- hold on, let me find you a picture,” Lucas said, pulling out his phone. “Actually, do you mind if we sit here with you?”

Jungwoo always found it weird to sit with strangers, often feeling left out, but this time he felt perfectly okay for Lucas and his friend to sit with him. “No, no worries, you guys can sit here.”

Lucas grinned again, pulling out the chair in front of Jungwoo and sitting down before showing Jungwoo his phone. “See, this is a Ferrero Rocher,” he started explaining. “And it's the most delicious candy you will have ever tried.”   
  
***

When Si Cheng arrived at the apartment later after classes, Ten could see that he was worried. 

“Yello,” Ten said, taking a bite of a pizza roll in his plate, promptly burning his tongue in the process. “Ah, fuck-”

Johnny, who was also there in the living room with Ten, opened his bag and got out his water bottle. “Ten, I told you that you have to  _ blow on it- _ ”

“NO!” Ten yelled, blowing over and over again. “I will die like a man-”

Si Cheng closed the door and locked it, placing his keys on the nightstand. He took off his backpack and slid down against the door, groaning. “I hate having a lot of homework and studying.”

Ten took a frantic sip of Johnny’s water before swallowing. “Don’t worry, Winwin, we have two more years to go. Two more years!”

“You’re only halfway through college, though,” Johnny pointed out. “But that’s a good thing, right?”

“Oh, god, Johnny, I can’t handle more math than that,” Ten said. 

Si Cheng rolled his eyes. “I still need to get a PhD after this.”

“Well, you’re fucked then,” Ten said, blowing on another pizza roll. “Just kidding, but really, Si Cheng, we’ll get through this, you know we can.”

Si Cheng got up from the floor, rubbing a sore spot on his neck. “Hopefully, though I doubt it with everything going on.”

Ten frowned. “Did something happen today?” he asked. 

“Uh… sort of,” Si Cheng muttered, heading towards the kitchen for an apple- damn it, Ten was there, he couldn’t eat it. “I was talking to my traditional dance professor today.”

“Inch resting,” Ten said, popping another pizza roll in his mouth. The outside had cooled, but the filling hadn’t, so he was blowing his cheeks out again, crying out in pain. “Dammit, why does god want me to die today?!”

“Babe, drink the water, please,” Johnny said, trying to calm him down. “Drink the water-”

“NO-”

Si Cheng came back from the kitchen, double stuff oreos in hand. He would have eaten the thin raspberry creme ones Yuta had given him this week, but he ate them all last night while binging on junk food while crying over an assignment. No, he did not want to talk about it. “My professor wants me to be the lead dancer for an upcoming performance,” Si Cheng continued when Ten finally drank the water Johnny had been pressuring him about. “Yeah, that’s what happened.”

Ten’s eyes widened. “Oh my god, you’re going to be a  _ lead dancer _ !” he exclaimed, getting off the couch to jump up and down in excitement, his bowl of pizza rolls spilling on the couch cushions. “Our Winwin is going to be a lead dancer!!”

“I mean- yeah?” Si Cheng said. “I am?”

Ten stopped jumping. “I thought you would be more enthusiastic about it.”

“I am, really,” Si Cheng said. “But I’m going to mess up-”

“Pfft, no you’re not,” Ten said, waving him off. “You’re, like, the best dancer this university has ever had, and they’ve had  _ me,  _ so you know you’re good,” he said. 

Si Cheng rolled his eyes but couldn’t help but grin. “Classic Chittaphon.”

“You guys are really good dancers,” Johnny said. “You’ll be fine in the performance, Winwin, I’m sure you’ll do well.”

Si Cheng shrugged, sitting down on the couch, Ten sitting next to him. “Yeah, but- I don’t know, it’s going to be a lot of work,” he said, taking out an oreo. “And the kids in my classes don’t like me, I can already imagine how they’re going to feel when they find out I have the lead role.”

“Well, like I always say, Si Cheng,” Ten reminded him. “They can fuck off for all I care, because  _ you  _ are the lead dancer, and that’s because you’re better than them and they’ll have to suck it up-”

“Ten, don’t be so aggressive,” Si Cheng said, slapping his arm. “Plus, a lot of them are really good, even better-”

“NO! No talking down on yourself.” Ten stole an oreo from Si Cheng and took a bite, not even finishing chewing before continuing. “You’re going to practice and rock the role and I’m going to your performance and I’ll scream the loudest-”

“Not if I scream the loudest,” Johnny said.

Ten glared at him. “No the fuck you aren’t,” he said. “Don’t you dare even try- bet, I’ll scream louder than Yuta- oh, have you told Yuta yet?” he asked Si Cheng.

Si Cheng, who had opened his mouth to take a bite of his oreo, closed it again. “No,” he admitted, staring at the oreo in his hand. “Not yet.”

“Well, you have to tell him,” Ten suggested. “Oh god, I can already think of all the cheesy stuff he’s going to say-”

Johnny pouted. “I thought you like cheesy stuff,” he mumbled.

“That’s different because you’re my boyfriend,” Ten reminded him. “If you and me makeout it’s the best but watching Si Cheng and Yuta go at it is kind of weird-”

“Ten, you’re so weird,” Si Cheng said, walking back to the kitchen for a glass of chocolate milk. “And the performance is in a few months, anyways, I have a lot of time to practice.”   
  
***   
  


_ Tofu Hater _

_ Today, 6:23 PM _

_ Hello my love _

_ Guess what _

_? _

_ I bought you some macarons today _

_ Your favorite!!! _ _   
_ _ Lemon!! _ _   
  
_

_ :O _

_ Yuta!! _ _   
_ _ You shouldn’t have _

_ Of course I should have! _ _   
_ _ Can I see you right now? _

_ I want to give them to you _

_ I’m not at the apartment right now _

_ I with Jungwoo in the main field _

_ He wants to look at all the clubs being offered _

_ Oof, CLUBS _

_ I’m in the mood for a club sandwich now _

_ But anyways! _ _   
_ _ Don’t worry, I’ll go over there and give them to you _

_ :D _

_ Macaron Giver _

_ I love you _

_ No! I love you more _

_ No you don’t, you like anime more _

_ Anime is second _

_ Above my brother _

_ Naoki made fun of my socks when I sent him a pic _

_ He’s just mad because his girlfriend Kotoko broke his bike _

_ Oof, I hadn’t rode a bike in ages _

_ We should go this weekend! _ _   
_ _ Hike through nature, be vegans for 2.3 hours before eating bacon _

_ That’s _

_ That’s not how it works _

_ It does in my book! _

_ Wait, do I own books? _ _   
_ _ I own manga, nevermind _

_ XD _

_ *** _

Later, Yuta caught up with Si Cheng outside, handing him the white decorative box with macarons. 

He had bought it earlier after classes, having struggled with an assignment and had gotten worn out. He thought it would be cool to roam around the city for a while and saw a display of the macarons and immediately thought of his boyfriend, who adored them. 

“I got you lemon!” he exclaimed, grinning. “I know you like them.”

Si Cheng took the box from Yuta, smiling. “You really shouldn’t have.”

“Nonsense, of course I should,” Yuta said, looking around. “Man, this university needs to have a cookie club or something, I would definitely join.”

“Oh, Jungwoo here joined the baking club,” Si Cheng said, pointing at his cousin besides him. “He said he wants to make me cookies.”

“Yes, I approve of that,” Yuta said, raising up his hand to give Jungwoo a high five. “Always tell me when you make a batch.”

Jungwoo nodded before making an ‘oh’ face. “That reminds me, someone gave me a bag of cookies earlier,” he said. “They were really delicious.”

“Amazing,” Yuta said. “We stan.”

Si Cheng lifted the bow from the box to open it, sliding out the gold tray with the macarons. “Do you want one, Jungwoo?” he said, offering his cousin a cookie. “They’re really good.”

Jungwoo shook his head. “No thanks, I had too much sugar today.”

“Oh, you can never have too much sugar,” Yuta said. “Unless you’re Jaehyun and broke a leg and your doctors tell you your blood sugar is extremely high-”

“He was traumatized for months,” Si Cheng recalled, taking one of the macarons, enjoying the softness of the cookie. “Though he says he can get diabetes from Taeyong-”

“God, don’t remind me, I’m pretty sure they were fucking in his room today,” Yuta said, groaning at the memory earlier. It was pretty obvious they had been going at it, considering all the sounds being emitted from Jaehyun’s room earlier. “They go hardcore sometimes-”

At the mention of sex, Jungwoo’s face turned red. 

“Yuta, you’re nasty,” Si Cheng said, wacking him with the macarons box. “You’re just like Ten earlier.”   
  


“Excuse you, I am a young male in my twenties, I’m going to have a sex drive,” Yuta said. Si Cheng couldn’t help but burst out laughing. “I’m not kidding!!”

SI Cheng raised an eye, grinning like a maniac. “As your boyfriend, I can always help you,” he said, giggling.

Yuta grinned as well. “Look who’s calling nasty now.”

“Oh, god, let’s just finish this event first,” Si Cheng said, forgetting Jungwoo was there. “Jungwoo, is there something else that you want to sign up for? Now is a good time to ask questions.”

Jungwoo shook his head. “No, I’m good.”

“Then we should go get dinner before I eat this whole box of macarons, I already ate an entire package of oreos earlier,” Si Cheng admitted. “Oh, Yuta, I have news to tell you.”   
  


  
  



	8. Distraction

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey guys   
> so quite some stuff has been happening in my life and it's taking me time to write fanfic, so im sorry for all the late updates, but I promise that nothing is abandoned and i will be trying to get back on track

“Do you ever wake up and tell yourself, man, I really fucking hate my life?” Mark said Friday afternoon. 

Haechan frowned. “No, I don’t???”

“Oh, okay, it’s just me,” Mark concluded. 

The two were in the dance practice room, waiting for the freshmen and the others to get here, so Haechan was the only one who could hear Mark have his usual existential crisis. The other day he was contemplating about square watermelons, and now he had been going on a ten-minute rant that started about water from different brands tasting different and now went to him hating himself.

“Mark, you need to lighten up a little, don’t hate yourself because you poured in milk first for your cereal this morning,” Haechan said, trying to calm him down. “Didn’t you say it was an accident?”

“I AM A TERRIBLE HUMAN BEING!!” Mark screeched, burying his face in his hands. 

Haechan rolled his eyes at his boyfriend’s antics, and unfortunately, he wasn’t making any progress of calming him down, and it was even more pathetic when someone opened the door to the practice room right when Mark screamed, “You don’t understand babe, I made a crime against humanity!!” 

“It’s not that serious- oh, Jeno!!” Haechan exclaimed when he saw Jeno standing at the doorway, the latter having a surprised look on his face. “You beat everyone else here!”

Jeno glanced from Haechan, who was getting up to greet him, to Mark who was still wailing. “Should I be concerned?” he asked, pointing at Mark. 

“Oh, he’s fine,” Haechan said, waving him off. “He’s literally crying about milk-”

Another head popped up in the doorway, someone close behind them. “The practice starts at six, right?” he asked. “I wasn’t really sure, the Yuta guy was being weird in the group chat about it.”

Mark took a break of his existential crisis to look up. “Oh, hey Renjun,” he said; compared to his friends, he was the best at memorizing names and faces. “Not gonna lie, I haven’t been on the group chat all day, my phone is still in a jar of rice-”

“Just use my phone, Mark,” Haechan said, turning his on and getting on the app. He didn’t get notifications from the chat since he turned them off after Jaehyun and Yuta spammed the chat with over 300 messages during 2am arguing which peanut butter brand was the best. “Oh, jeez, there  _ are  _ messages on the chat-”

“What is it?” Mark asked him, reading over his shoulder. “Oh, god, there’s a lot of messages we missed-”

Right at that moment, Jaehyun entered the dance practice room, Taeyong and the last two trainees behind him. “Hey guys, how’s life-”

“Can we stop talking about life?” Haechan interrupted him. He held out his phone, showing the screen to everyone. “Jaehyun, what happened in the groupchat?”

“Oh, yeah, I forgot you muted it,” Jaehyun said. “Oh, Yuta said he’s not coming, there’s this class he’s worried about and he’s cramming and all this shit, it’ll just be us today- Mark, why are you crying?”

Mark, who had started sobbing in his hands again, looked up. Jaehyun was startled at how teary-eyed he looked. “I poured the milk before cereal this morning-”

“You did WHAT?!?!?” Jaehyun shrieked at him. “HOW COULD YOU-”

Haechan laid down on the floor, closing his eyes. “Hey, kids, tell me when they stop arguing, I’m going to take a nap,” he said, while Jaehyun screamed at Mark. “It’s going to take a while-”

“We only have practice for an hour today, though,” one of the freshmen, Jaemin, said. “And it turned six two minutes ago-”

“Yep, I am aware,” Haechan said. “You get used to this, not gonna lie.”   
  


  
***

  
  


Yuta was rubbing his eyes vigorously for the third time in the past seven minutes. 

He was in his bedroom at the apartment, alone. Mark and Jaehyun went to teach the dance class for the freshmen but he told the group chat that he wasn’t going to be able to go; the  _ last  _ thing he needed was to go out knowing he had work to do. 

Thus, now he was here, staring at the stupid assignment in front of him. 

Why did he pick a business major again? Did he like it before? Did he pick it because he needed a major that wasn’t useless? Oh, yeah, he didn’t want to major in dance because he is a major (ha) coward. 

Well, whatever. He just needed to pass this year, get his degree, and if things went well with dancing, earn a career in that. If not, he could get your boring typical office job with a suitcase and learn how to use an iron. Or  _ WORSE,  _ work in  _ retail _ -

Yuta scolded himself for thinking about the future again and stared at the assignment in front of him. He really needed to get this done; the class was getting a lot harder than he expected, and the last thing he needed was like a repeat of last year where he was dangerously close to failing some of his classes, and he couldn’t afford to miss these; they were mandatory credits. 

He slumped down on his chair and stared at the wall for a good minute, trying to breath like how he was supposed to when he heard a knock on the living room door. 

Thankful for the distraction, Yuta jumped out of his chair and sprinted out of his room, dashing into the living room where he gave himself a few seconds to fix his ruined hair before opening the door to reveal the love of his life. 

“Winwinie!” Yuta exclaimed, instinctively wrapping his arms around his boyfriend, almost crushing him. “Thank you for saving me from death.”

Si Cheng grinned, but it didn’t last for long since- “Yuta I can’t  _ breathe-"" _

“Oh, yeah, my bad,” Yuta said, letting go of Si Cheng. “Sorry, I just love you.”

“Yuta, I- oh, jeez,” Si Cheng trailed off, but not before giving Yuta a kiss on his cheek. “I love you too.”

Yuta pouted. “Can’t I have one on the lips?” 

Si Cheng shook his head, trying to contain his laughter. “No, you have to earn it today. 

“What if… ah ha! Give me a second,” Yuta said, before running back inside towards the kitchen, opening a cupboard. “I hid it in here somewhere-”

“What, no, Yuta, you don’t need to give me food!” Si Cheng yelled, stepping inside the apartment to see Yuta pull out a box of kit kats on the highest shelf. “Yuta, you  _ just  _ gave me macarons yesterday-”

“I am your boyfriend, I can give you whatever I want  _ whenever  _ I want,” Yuta reminded him before setting the box down on the counter. “I’m really glad you're here, I was having a very miserable Friday.” 

Si Cheng inched slowly towards the kitchen, standing next to the table in the dining room. “Miserable? Why, what happened?”

Yuta scoffed, rolling his eyes. “ _ School  _ happened, god, sometimes I want to drop out,” he mumbled, opening the kitkat box to pull out some. Si Cheng noticed that it was apple flavor, one of their favorites. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me, you know I’ve never been able to focus in class that well.”

Si Cheng wanted to give him words of encouragement, but knowing Yuta, they wouldn’t really do anything, so he had to think carefully. “Yeah, school is hard, but…” he started, “I think… I mean, you’re a senior, Yuta, it’s not something to be ashamed of, you know, senior year  _ is  _ hard.”

“I know, I know, but it looks like everyone is managing their year well,” Yuta explained. He opened one of the kit kat packages angrily, ready to shove the whole candy in his mouth. Maybe he should order a whole goddamn pizza and eat it all out of anger to the education system. “I hate doing homework.”

“Don’t remind me of homework,” Si Cheng muttered under his breath, thinking of the long assignment that he finally finished after spending half of his day on it. That is  _ precisely  _ why he hasn’t seen Yuta all day until now. “It may look easy for some people now, but you know how it’s going to get near final season.”

Yuta ripped apart one of the kitkat sticks and took a bite. “God, Jaehyun literally  _ sleeps  _ in the library and Mark forgets to shower,” he said, wrinkling his nose in disgust at the memory. “I think I had three hours of sleep that week.”

“You were getting sleep?” Si Cheng joked, though truthfully, he doesn’t recall sleeping during finals time; back in the winter, he had to stop dancing because of his broken foot and he was pissed about it, and spring semester finals were much harder than winter. “I never liked finals.”

“If you do, that would make you a psychopath,” Yuta said, grabbing an unopened package and handing it to Si Cheng. “For you, my love, have a kitkat.”

Si Cheng always feels bad at accepting Yuta’s gifts, but he had to admit, Kit Kats were pretty darn delicious, especially the apple flavors. “Thanks for the candy,” Si Cheng said, going straight to opening the package. “You know I love your Kit Kats.”

“Hell yeah, they’re the greatest invention,” Yuta said, taking out another stick and taking a bite. “Might I dare say, they are better than Pocky.”

“You know rice crackers are supreme,” Si Cheng reminded him, taking a bite out of the familiar candy. “But Kit Kats come close-”

“Rice crackers are  _ not  _ supreme, I am not afraid of having this discussion.”

“But you know they are better-”

“Nope, Kit Kats are better-”

“Yuta, you stole my rice crackers the other day.”

Yuta pouted, crossing his arms before looking away. “I was just hungry,” he said, denying Si Cheng’s claims. “But I will admit, they are good.”

Si Cheng covered his mouth, stifling a laugh. “Whatever you say, love,” he said, taking another bite of his candy. Even though he had self-imposed a diet to lose weight, he could have a piece of candy, it wouldn’t hurt, right? “Whatever you say.”   
  


  
***

_ Macaron Giver _

_ Saturday, 2:29 AM _

_ Are you awake _

_ Hello _

_ My love _

_ My most wonderful boyfriend _

_ Saturday, 2:32 AM _

_ I am mildly concerned _

_ WHY ARE YOU UP SO LATE _ _   
_ _ YOU NEED TO SLEEP _

_ YOU ARE ALSO AWAKE _

_ Yeah that’s fair _

_ But I was bored :( _

_ And I miss you _

_ You said you had to study _

_ I know _

_ And I’m still not done _

_ Hihi _

_ NAKAMOTO YUTA _

_ What _

_ I didn’t do anything wrong  _

_ Please go to sleep this isn’t healthy _

_ I mean I WAS studying earlier _

_ But I went to get a pear _

_ And then I forgot for like three hours _

_ Also my leg won’t stop shaking oof _

_ We can study together in the morning if you want _

_ No I’m fine I can finish _

_ I think I can finish yeah _

_ But go to sleep, you shouldn’t be awake _

_ I’ll go to sleep if you go to sleep _

_ No _

_ >:( _

_ Plus I’m bored _

_ By the way why are YOU up so late _

_ Hmm?? _

_ Saturday, 2:54 AM _

_ Winwin? _

_ Did you fall asleep? _

_ Saturday, 3:12 AM _

_ I’m going to assume you did _

_ Good night my dear _

_ I’m almost done studying _

_ No I wasn’t asleep _

_ I had a nightmare tbh _

_ I stared at the ceiling for a while but then got on my phone so _

_ That’s why I’ve been awake :/ and I can’t sleep _

_ So i took a shower _

_ Oh _

_ I’m sorry _

_ It’s fine _

_ Americans are very loud on Twitter right now _

_ They’re “cancelling” someone right now _

_ Yeah Twitter is fucking stupid _

_ But if you follow the right content, you get the best dumbassery _

_ I love it _

_ Lol _

_ I like Insta, they have a lot of good videos _

_ And Ten made me get a “fake” account, I forgot the name for it _

_ Oof, yeah, the “finsta” _

_ I have like three of those XD _

_ I think I stalked you on one of them _

_ You did WHAT _

_ I WAS AN IMMATURE JUNIOR _ _   
_ _ No I was just really curious about you _

_ The cute boy from statistics class _

_ That reminds me, when’s the last time you made cookies? _ _   
  
_

_ Um… maybe four months ago? _

_ I made some during the beginning of summer but _

_? _

_ Uh, my mom scolded me for baking _

_ So I haven’t cooked anything in a while _

_ Don’t you DARE give me any more cookies _

_ You were reading my mind XD _

_ Don’t worry, I’ll buy you some pears _

_ And scare your friend with them lol _

_ He will murder you, not kidding _

_ You will be missed, my love _

_ That’s the way to go! _

  
  
  
  


***

“Why are we at Joann’s again?” Johnny asked Ten on Saturday, who was walking towards the slow at an extremely fast pace. “I thought you hate crafts."

“Oh, I do, I fucking despise looking at fabric bundles,” Ten agreed, grabbing a basket near the entrance of the store. “But it’s going to be Winwin’s birthday soon, and I need inspiration for his gift.”

Johnny nodded, seeing how Ten would do everything, even die for his best friend unless it involved eating grapes. 

That is, until he realized what day it was. “But, Ten, we’re in August,” Johnny said. “I thought his birthday was the end of October-”

“BIRTHDAY PREPARATIONS HAVE NO LIMITS!” Ten reminded Johnny. “It’s almost September and yet I’m still clueless! I only have two months left- wait a second.” Ten turned around, facing Johnny. “I am being struck with geniusness.”

Johnny stayed silent, his eyes looking around. What could have possibly given Ten an idea for a two-month away birthday? “What is it?” he asked, curious.

“HAND SANITIZER!” Ten exclaimed, setting the basket down on the pile again. He wiped his hands on his jeans before grabbing Johnny’s own hand to take him away from the crafts store. “He’s been into bath products lately and really likes the smell of artificial watermelon.

“Um, I have so many questions,” Johnny said as they walked away. “One, where did this idea come from?”

“Oh, my hands felt sticky and I regret not bringing my backpack,” Ten explained. “Also, Si Cheng is a sucker for Bath and Body Works but since they’re so fucking expensive he only buys shit there once a year on Boxing Day when everything is on clearance.”

Johnny frowned but didn’t say anything. He hated that store so much; who on Earth would pay twelve dollars for a small bottle of lotion when you could get a gigantic one for three dollars on Walmart? It’s not like it’s better since they have the same ingredients anyways. Not that he would know, he doesn’t have the money to spend on lotion. “Man, fuck capitalism,” Johnny agreed. 

“EXACTLY, his favorite apple shower gel stock ran out and now he’s sad he has to wait four months to buy it,” Ten said. “He takes  _ way  _ too many showers, in my opinion, no wonder Yuta’s so obsessed with smelling him all the time- that came out wrong.”

Johnny tried to hold in a laugh. “I just imagined Yuta smelling him like a dog.”

“To quote Jaehyun a few months ago, ‘That’s why Yuta is a bitch,” Ten said, rolling his eyes, thinking of when in America they were in a store and Yuta smelled a Kit Kat literally fifty feet away. “Now that I think about it, Yuta has his own obsessions, what’s the big deal of Kit Kats? Though it’s cute he gives some to Winwin literally every week, bet if we go back home right this instance Si Cheng will have a new batch.” 

“I prefer Hershey’s,” Johnny agreed. “Though I don’t remember the last time I had one.” 

Ten grinned, lightly pushing Johnny forward. “Let’s go to the mall and get ourselves some candy, after we buy his shower gel of course. And  _ no  _ fruit in our candy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> man i could use some candy right now- *blasts Baekhyun*


	9. I!! Am!! Hungry!!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it's been a while, ive been going through some stuff, but i dont mean to worry you guys!! i hope you like this chapter

“I can’t believe we only have an hour left until dance practice,” Jaemin said, sighing. “I miss being five years old and going to bed at eight pm.”

Jeno took a long sip of his double chocolate chip milkshake with extra whip and two cherries (yes, that was an actual order; he has that milkshake more than two times every day, it’s a miracle how he doesn’t have high blood sugar. “I don’t remember the last time I slept at eight pm.”

Renjun shrugged. “My sleep schedule has been a lot better since I came to college-” 

Jisung choked while he had been drinking his large sprite. “Excuse me,  _ what _ ?”

“I think you meant ‘worst’” Chen Le corrected Renjun in Mandarin. 

Renjun raised an eye, staring at his plain vanilla milkshake. “No, I meant ‘better’,” he said, taking a long sip. “Mhm, this hits the spot.”

The junior dance team has been meeting a bit more regularly outside of the dance practices that were led by the 127! group. Since they were all freshmen and didn’t know anyone else in the university (other than Jeno who by a miracle have found Haechan, an old high school classmate), they decided to just stick together with one another. 

“How bad was your sleep schedule in China?!” Jisung asked. “What, did you sleep at 3am or something?”

“Oh, god, I slept at 3 am two days ago,” Jaemin said, groaning. “But unlike yesterday, I actually  _ slept. _ ”

Renjun rolled his eyes. “You know, as a gamer, I’m not really allowed to sleep, but I left all my consoles and video games back in Jilin so now I have nothing to do,” he said, sighing. 

“Wow, you guys had lives back in high school?” Jisung said. “I don’t even remember what I did yesterday.”

Chen Le frowned. “Uh oh, I can’t remember either.”

Jaemin took Jeno’s milkshake and took a sip, the latter giving him a glare. “Well, I mean, it’s Tuesday, weird shit happens on Tuesday,” Jaemin explained. He grabbed his phone while Jeno took his milkshake back and turned it on, checking his notifications. “Jaehyun is asked if we’ve picked a song yet that we want to perform.”

“Oh, for the charity concert?” Chen Le asked. The 127! team thought it would be a good idea for them to perform in it, since it was open to all grade levels. “I like Boom.”

“Pfft, no, Ridin’ is better,” Jeno said, stealing Renjun’s french fries. “We should do that one.”

“Oh, god, not this argument again,” Renjun muttered to himself. “Guys, just pick a song already!!!”   
  


  
***

  
  


“We have not picked a song yet,” Renjun said during the dance practice meet.

Yuta sighed, typing it on his phone. “Okay, I set it as a reminder,” he said. “But you guys have to pick it soon so that we have enough time to practice.” 

“Like I said, we should all just go with Ridin’,” Jeno muttered. 

“Remember guys, this is the only chance you are getting to participate like a democracy,” Jaehyun said, only to screech when Haechan slapped his arm. “Man, what the fuck was that for?"

“What’s the point of dismantling oppressive governments only to make a new one in its place?” Haechan scolded him. 

“Yeah, Jaehyun, weren’t you arguing an hour ago of how the United States is making it harder for citizens of poor class to vote by trying to defund the United States postal service?” Mark reminded Jaehyun. 

“I thought I would never have to take another government class again,” Jisung said, sighing. 

Yuta rubbed his temples, forcing himself to take a deep breath. “Okay, so we have to do  _ something  _ today,” he said. “Let’s go over the choreography for We Young then.”

The five freshmen got in position while Jaehyun searched for the file on his laptop. “I wished Taeyongie were here,” he said, pouting. “Who gives essays to their students so early in the year?”

“Great, so now we gotta dismantle the Korean education system now,” Mark said. “Our generation gets no sleep.”

“Sleep debt, people! It’s a real thing!” Jaehyun said, finding the file. “Okay, we should probably start practice now, I want to get pizza later.”   
  


  
***   
  


_ Macaron Giver _

_ Today, 9:23 PM _

_ Hello asshole _

_ I’m going to kashoot myself _

_ Today, 9:25 PM _

_ Yuta? _

_ FUCK I THOUGHT I WAS TEXTING NAOKI _

_ Hello my love ;) i love you _

_ Im confused _

_ You sent the winky face for ~sexy times~ _

_ but youre talking about _

_ Kashooting yourself? _

_ Uh _

_ It’s a meme bebs _

_ Don’t think too much about it <3 _

_? _

_ I’m going to have a talk with your brother one of these days _

_ PLEASE DON'T _

_ Son of a bitch stole my bike _

_ I mean i'm not in japan so i don't need it _

_ But still _

_ It’s MY bike _

_ I mean bikes ARE an excellent mode of transportation _

_ Indeed they are! _

_ Also can we go get ramen por favor _

_ I love you _

_ I just had dinner with Jungwoo _

_ Sorry :( _

_ *cries* _

_ I hate life _

_ I’ll tag alone if you want! _

_ I’m just doing homework at the moment _

_ I really need to finish it _

_ And I can always use their glasses of lemonade _

_ :D _

_ I’ll pick you up at your place if you want <3 _

_ <3 _

***

Yuta slurped some more ramen, already on his second bowl, while Si Cheng struggled with his Advanced Magnetism homework. 

“This really does hit the spot,” Yuta said, picking up some more ramen with his fork. “Yo, practice today was  _ insane,  _ Mark and Haechan started ranting about whether the moon landing was fake or not-"

Si Cheng scratched the back of his neck, staring at the problem he had been stuck with during the past three minutes. “I’m not surprised,” he said, half-paying attention to Yuta’s story.

“Yeah, and then one of the freshmen, the one named Jeno, was getting sick because apparently he drinks too many milkshakes everyday,” Yuta said, only to frown when he realized Si Cheng wasn’t paying attention. “Is something wrong?”

“No,” Si Cheng said, looking up. “You were talking about Jeno?”

Yuta sighed, pushing his bowl away. “Si Cheng, you can take a break, you know,” he said. “Ten told me you’ve been doing homework since 2 today.”

“No, that’s a lie,” Si Cheng said, rolling his eyes. “I had two hours of dance practice today for the traditional dance performance,  _ and  _ I had dinner.”

“Yeah, well, your dinner was apparently two bites of rice, according to Jungwoo,” Yuta said. “While doing the exact same homework you’re doing now.”

“Well, forgive me for being too stupid for my major,” Si Cheng said, closing his notebook shut. “And for not wanting to be fat.”

“Si Cheng, you’re not fat,” Yuta reminded him. “And you’re not- hey, where are you going?”

Si Cheng had stuffed his notebook and textbook in his backpack, slinging it over his shoulder. “I came here because I always feel calm with you,” he explained. “And now all you’re doing is lecturing me.”

“I’m not  _ lecturing  _ you, I’m telling you that you need a break,” Yuta says. “We’ve been here for over an hour and all you’ve been doing is homework-”

“Yuta, this is due tomorrow!” Si Cheng yelled at him. “And I have a of work to do and I’m filled with classes and practices tomorrow until five, I  _ don’t  _ need a break right now-”

“Si Cheng- Winwin-” Yuta leaned forward, spilling some ramen on his shirt as he grabbed the back of Si Cheng’s shirt, not letting him leave. “Love, wait.”

Si Cheng stood there, looking at the ceiling, blinking back tears. “I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I didn’t mean to yell at you.”

“No, it’s fine, I know I was the one being pushy.” Yuta got up from the table and tipped a five thousand korean note before grabbing Si Cheng’s hand. “Let me take you back to your apartment, okay? We’ve been here for a while.”

“I- yeah, I still need to finish… work,” Si Cheng trailed off, looking away. 

Yuta didn’t say anything until they left the ramen shop. It had already gotten dark outside, but many students were still milling around, going out to their dorms or somewhere to sleep or eat. 

The light from one of the streetlights shone on Si Cheng’s hair, and Yuta couldn’t help but push away a strand. “I’m worried about you,” he said finally. “You look more stressed than usual.”

Si Cheng didn’t say anything, kicking a stray rock he saw on the ground. 

Yuta decided to continue. “Remember what you told me the other day? When I said that it looked like everyone was handling everything well?”

Si Cheng nodded. “About how everyone has their own struggles.”

“Exactly.” Yuta wrapped his arm around Si Cheng’s shoulder. “We’ll get through it, okay? I know it’s hard for us to hear it, but we’ll get through this year together, okay?”

“Define get through the year,” Si Cheng mumbled. 

Fuck, Yuta did not have an answer for that one. “Come out alive? I don’t know, to be honest- hey, let’s just get through this semester first,” he suggested instead. “You have your performance in the winter, correct? I’m looking forward to that, I just know you’re going to be great-”

“Oh, god, no, I’m going to be  _ so  _ bad at it,” Si Cheng said, cringing at the thought of Yuta seeing his horrible dancing. “I still don’t know why my teacher picked me as the lead performer.”

“That’s because she’s a smart woman,” Yuta reminded him. “Hey, you didn’t let me self deprecate last year, so what makes you think I’ll let you this year?”

“That- that’s different, though,” Si Cheng stuttered. “Besides, you even won first place, so there’s no way you can call yourself a bad dancer-”

“-But I  _ am  _ a bad dancer,” Yuta said. 

“No you’re  _ not _ ,” Si Cheng scolded him. “You shouldn’t put yourself down like that.”

Yuta kicked a rock like Si Cheng earlier. “We’re both hypocrites, aren’t we?”

“I- I can’t even say anything without proving your point,” Si Cheng mumbled. “Why did college have to be so hard?”

“Or life in general,” Yuta muttered under his breath. “Man. I wish I could go back to high school and have pizza parties again or some shit.”

He heard Si Cheng’s stomach grumble at the mention of pizza. “Not that mention of  _ food _ ,” Si Cheng groaned. 

“Hey, do you want to go back to my apartment?” Yuta suggested. “I’ll make you something small to eat while you work, okay? Every ten minutes, you have to take a few bites.”

“I’m not-” Si Cheng was interrupted when his stomach growled again. “-hungry- ah, fuck, my body betrays me all the time.”

Yuta wanted to laugh at Si Cheng’s betrayed face. “I’ll make you some rice and chicken, don’t worry,” he said, promising to himself to take care of his boyfriend.

  
  


***

Wednesday afternoon, Jungwoo was eating in the canteen again by himself at the corner, eating his buttery noodles in silence. 

His mother was texting him right now, asking an assortment of questions about his classes and whether he had been trying to talk to his professors and maintain good relations, as that would surely help him later on when he tried to apply for graduate school back home in China. 

At one point, she asked him about his cousin Si Cheng. Jungwoo did not want to lie to his mother, but he couldn’t help but remember how sad Si Cheng had been when he argued with his own mom. 

Taking a deep breath, he decided to text her a neutral response and see how she reacted. 

_ I haven’t seen cousin Si Cheng in a while, I don’t know what he’s been up to.  _

Well, it was  _ partly  _ true. Si Cheng had been really busy lately. Yesterday during dinner, Si Cheng had spent the whole time doing homework and didn’t even touch his rice. 

Si Cheng was in harder classes, though, more difficult than Jungwoo’s own classes, and he couldn’t help but wonder if he was going to be stressed out like his cousin sooner or later. 

He took another bite of his noodles when his mother sent him another response.  _ Of course he’s being rebellious, I didn’t expect anything less. It’s best if you don’t hang out with him.  _

Jungwoo frowned at the message. His mother thought Si Cheng was  _ rebellious _ ? How? 

“Yo, it’s you!” Jungwoo looked up to see Lucas running up to him, grinning. “I didn’t expect to see you here right now.”

His friend Kun was behind him, chewing on something while having a disgusted look. “God, I hate chocolate,” he muttered to himself.

Lucas reached towards Jungwoo’s table, setting his backpack down before pulling out a chair, sitting down immediately. “It’s been awhile! You said you were a freshman, right?” he asked in Mandarin, voice laced with enthusiasm. “How have you liked university so far?” 

Jungwoo looked down at his phone, where his mother had now asked him if he had looked at any internships in the area. “Uh, it’s- it’s going okay, I guess,” he whispered, turning off his phone to look at Lucas again. “Do you know when it’s supposed to be hard?”

“Oh, here, pfft, I spent the first two hours crying,” Lucas said, as Kun reached up to him to set his backpack down before getting food; like last time, he only had thirty minutes to eat again. “But then I discovered a smoothie shop here on google maps and I instantly felt better.”

“A- a  _ smoothie  _ shop?” Jungwoo asked, surprised. “How?”

Lucas shrugged, crossing his arms and laying it down on the table. “I was feeling homesick, you know?” he said. “South Korea is very different from Hong Kong.”

“Hong Kong?” Jungwoo asked him. “You’re from Hong Kong?”

“Yeah, I speak Cantonese, man!” Lucas said in English, excited. “Mandarin is not my native language, technically,” he continued in Mandarin. 

Jungwoo nodded. “I always thought Hong Kong was cool,” Jungwoo said. “I even applied to a university there. But my mom doesn’t like it.”

Lucas frowned. “Why doesn’t she like Hong Kong?” he asked, confused.

“She’s- she’s not really open minded,” Jungwoo trailed off. “I- I know it sounds bad.”

“No, I get it,” Lucas said. “My parents believe in stuff different than I do, but it takes time. Especially when they are criticizing a group of people not knowing you’re a part of it.”

Jungwoo thought of his mother, who always expressed his hatred for Koreans, even though she  _ knew  _ Jungwoo himself was Korean. “It is hard,” he mumbled. 

“Yeah, it is, we just have to learn from their mistakes,” Lucas continued. “Like thanks to my dad I now know to keep jumper cables in my car here. If you knew how many times his car stopped while in the middle of the highway you would wonder how he’s still alive.”

“How he’s still  _ what _ ?” Jungwoo asked, surprised. 

“My father likes old cars,” Lucas said, “It’s really- oh, hey Kun! Woah, is that stir fry?”

Kun came back with his food and sat down next to Lucas, a plate of stir fry on his plate. “I literally always eat stir fry here,” he said. “When are  _ you  _ going to get your food?”

“Eh, I have time,” Lucas said, waving him off. “I don’t have anything today except to finish my Thai homework.”

Kun glared at Lucas for a solid ten seconds before speaking up. “I’m sorry, but who  _ dragged  _ me here to eat lunch with him? I was perfectly fine of eating ramen noodles in my room by myself-”

“You say that, but  _ I’m  _ not the one who started turning red when they saw Xiaojun in the hall-”

Kun slammed his hand on Lucas’ mouth, the other raising an eye at him. “Is that  _ really  _ necessary?”

Lucas took Kun’s hand off him. “What did I tell you about the Ferrero Rochers?” Lucas reminded him. “About how you should stop eating them?”

“I can’t say no to him though,” Kun said, crossing his arms. “It’s just- he’s so sweet, and he’s been offering them for a while now, it’ll be weird to just  _ stop _ -”

While the two bickered, Jungwoo took another bite of his buttery noodles before speaking up. “Why don’t you get him something in return?” he said. “That’ll be really romantic.”

Kun furiously shook his head. “Oh, god no, i wouldn’t even know what to give him-”

“That’s a great idea!” Lucas said, wrapping his arm around Kun’s shoulder. “This Friday, we should go shopping to get something for Xiaojun- hey Jungwoo, you should come too, man!” he said, excited. “Yeah, the three of us!”   
  


Jungwoo turned red at the thought of being invited with them two. “Are- are you sure?”

“I can guarantee you, whatever I get Xiaojun, he will probably hate my guts forever,” Kun said. 

“Nonsense, he’ll love it!” Lucas got up from the table. “You think of ideas of what to get him while I get food, I’m starving.”   
  



	10. Stress

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know its been so long but Ive finally been able to publish other stories this week and i feel so happy about myself!
> 
> ALSO NCT 2020 ASDFGHJKK

Thursday and Friday passed, thankfully, with Si Cheng able to turn in all his assignments on time and attending all dance practices, so he was able to wake up Saturday morning without an alarm, every college student's dream. 

With all his sleep debt piled up, that’s how Si Cheng managed to find himself waking up at 10:23 AM, groaning as he rolled over his bed to stare at his alarm clock on the nightstand, cursing himself for still being so tired. 

He laid on his back, staring at the ceiling as he hugged his watermelon pillow close to his chest. “I fucking hate life,” he said to himself in Mandarin. “Do I have to get up?”

Obviously, there was no answer, seeing as he was the only one in the room. If he did get one, that would have creeped him the fuck out. 

“Okay, I have to get up, don’t I?” he said, sighing. “One, two, three-”

He sat up, ignoring his pounding headache, and got off his bed, slipping his feet into his pair of sandals before walking slowly out of his room, still holding on to his watermelon pillow. 

The apartment was pretty quiet, thankfully, so he was surprised to see Ten at the kitchen table, eating what appeared to be his… fifth? Sixth? Shrimp arepa that he must have ordered from the hispanic restaurant they always go to. 

“Morning,” Si Cheng said, heading into the kitchen. 

“Before you judge-” Ten said, holding an arepa to his mouth. “I am in the process of stress eating.”

Si Cheng opened the fridge. He would have eaten strawberries, but since Ten was there, he decided to just grab a bag of pepperonis and steal some slices. “Trust me, I was not judging you,” he said, popping some slices in his mouth. “God, I’m so fucking tired.” 

“Same,” Ten said, taking another bite of his arepa before continuing to speak. “I have no idea how Johnny still manages to go to work without being late.”

“He just has a very strong work ethic,” Si Cheng explained. “Man, I wish I could relate.”

Ten finished his arepa and reached for his water bottle. “No, you work pretty hard,” he said, “and you know what you want to do in life. I still feel like I’m not doing anything.”

“What do you mean, you work a lot,” Si Cheng said, setting down his pepperonis on the table as he sat down on the chair opposite from Ten. “And you always do stuff, I’m always stuck here in the apartment doing nothing."

“My Si Chengie,” Ten said, pointing his now empty water bottle at Si Cheng. “I think the real fault here isn’t you or me but the EDUCATION SYSTEM-”

“Ten, you can’t just blame the education system whenever something goes wrong-”

“Nonsense, I can blame whatever I want.” Ten threw his water bottle in the air in an attempt for it to land right side up, but instead it just rolled underneath the table. “I like to think I’m putting in effort in college, I guess, but, eh, I think I’m just stressed these days.”

Si Cheng grabbed another water bottle that was on the table, taking off the cap. “The semester has barely started,” he reminded him. 

“Stress has no starting date,” Ten said, taking out his phone. “But it  _ does  _ have an ending date- hey, when do we graduate again?”

“I have no clue. Probably in forever at this rate,” Si Cheng said.

“Well,  _ I  _ say we do something today!” Ten exclaimed, jumping out of his chair. “We need to stop being so depressive and negative, that’s reserved for Tuesdays.”

“At 5:16 to 5:32 PM,” Si Cheng quoted from memory. “What do you have in mind?”

Ten flashed him a grin that Si Cheng could only interpret as trouble. “You have one hour to get change.”

  
***

  
  


“Jaehyun, you  _ do  _ realize that the whole point of a double study date is the word  _ study _ , right?” Mark reminded his friend. 

The two couples were studying in the library Saturday noon - well, supposed to be studying, supposed being the key word.

“He’s just tired, we went to sleep late,” Taeyong explained, not looking up as he continued to make an outline in his notebook for an upcoming essay in one of his classes. “Jaehyunie, you can take a nap if you want to-”

Jaehyun lifted up his head from the table. “I am  _ not  _ sleepy, it’s just my stamina is worn out,” he said. 

At that moment, Haechan took a sip of his water bottle, and as soon as he heard the word  _ stamina  _ he spat it all over his laptop. “Ew, really??"

“Y’all still aren’t studying but okay,” Mark said, sighing as he slammed his pencil down on his homework. “I fucking hate senior year.”

“Yuta’s been trying to tell you that,” Jaehyun said, resting his head on his hand. “Ah, Taeyongie, let me take you out to eat tonight.”

Taeyong didn’t look at him, still doing his work, but no one could miss his grin. “Jaehyun,” he said quietly, “you don’t have to.”

“But I want to,” Jaehyun replied, pouting. “I love you.”

“Jaehyun, you know I respect you for being my cousin’s boyfriend but do you have to do this while I’m arguing with my lab partner through google doc word comments?” Haechan interrupted him, trying to wipe his keyboard with his sleeve as there was now water and spit everywhere. “And if y’all  _ do  _ end up going out, Taeyong, let me pick your outfit-”

Mark groaned, slamming his head over the scattered sheets layed out in front of him. “Why do we keep doing this every Saturday, I don’t get any work done.”

“My second best friend, Mark Lee-” Jaehyun started. “You see-”

“The fuck did you just call me?!” Mark yelled at him. 

“See, if you  _ weren’t  _ criticizing my sleeping habits I would have said first, but for today Yuta gets that title,” Jaehyun said, taking out his phone. “Speaking of which, where is that bitch?”

Mark rolled his eyes, opening his backpack to pull out a bag of cheetos. “He said he wanted to do homework alone in his room.”

Jaehyun stared at Mark for a few seconds, confused. “Really?” he asked, looking back at his phone. “Man, he’s getting more antisocial with every second.”

“It’s the stress, baby!” Haechan yelled, slamming his laptop shut. “He probably has crying sessions scheduled like us.”

“I’m sorry, who has crying sessions scheduled?” Mark asked. 

Taeyong looked up from his notebook. “Every Sunday for an hour we spend all of our time crying,” he explained. 

“Technically, crying is a healthy way to get rid of toxins in your body  _ and  _ can wash away dirt and debris on your face meaning no pimples,” Haechan added. “Also, there’s no legal way of hitting someone so we stick to pillows if required.”

“You  _ do  _ know kickboxing exists, right?” Jaehyun reminded him. 

Mark glared at Jaehyun. “Are you  _ really  _ going to brush over the fact that our boyfriends say they have crying sessions every week?”

Jaehyun shrugged. “What, you don’t?"

“No??? I don’t??”

“I mean, it’s not something you often make public,” Haechan said. “Nor advertise. Can’t have people thinking I’m a weak bitch.”

“Hey, crying does  _ not  _ make you weak,” Jaehyun reminded him.

Haechan scoffed at him. “Yeah, but other people seem to forget that.”

“Yeah, gotta  _ love _ fragile, toxic masculinity,” Jaehyun mumbled, typing on his phone. Probably messaging Yuta. “Us Gen Z got to do something!” 

“Don’t you mean millennials?” Taeyong corrected him. “Since we were born before the 2000s. After the 2000s would be considered Generation Z.”

“I think we’re hating the wrong generation,” Haechan said. “Yuta gave me an analysis once about Gen X but I forgot, I’ll ask Si Cheng to get it from him.”

Mark groaned, covering his face with his hands. “I hate you guys.”

“That’s your problem,” Jaehyun said, stealing Mark’s pencil on the table. “Now leave me alone, I’m getting stressed for not studying-”

“I’m about to fucking scream,” Mark warned him. 

***

Jungwoo stood in front of his dorm room, clutching his phone tightly as he waited for the time to turn 2 PM. 

On Wednesday, Lucas asked him if he wanted to go shopping with him and Kun, thinking it was a good idea to go with Kun to find a present for Xiaojun. Kun has had a crush on Xiaojun for  _ ages,  _ Lucas explained to him, but Kun, being the coward he is, was scared of finding something for latter, afraid he’ll reject it. 

Jungwoo thought it would be a good idea. He hasn’t really been out of the college campus, save to go eat something light or maybe buy some groceries, so it would be really cool to explore what this city had to offer. 

Back in China, he rarely went out of his house, his parents often scolding him for wasting time that he could be using for school work. Plus, the only times he has made an effort to look presentable was interviews, meetings and important family events, so it was a  _ tad  _ bit difficult for knowing what to dress up while going to a mall in Seoul. 

Jungwoo wore a usual pair of jeans and his sneakers, choosing not to wear his sweater today, instead opting for a long-sleeve turtleneck. He was glad, though, because it was really warm outside, and he knew he would have been suffering his usual bouts of heatstroke. 

He turned on his phone again, looking at the time. 1:54 PM. He didn’t know how long people usually spent shopping at malls, but he was hoping to advance at some more of his homework when he got back at his dorm, maybe a few hours or so-

“JUNGWOO!” 

Jungwoo turned around and saw a car pull out to him, Lucas sticking his head out of the passenger seat window. “Oh, Lucas!”

The car parked, where Jungwoo could see how Kun was the driver as Lucas got out of the car. “Man, you don’t know  _ how  _ many ideas I came up with last night, but Kun over here is being a pessimist-”

“I’m not being a pessimist,” Kun interrupted him. “I’m just being realistic here-”

“PESSIMIST, KUN!” Lucas shouted at him. “You need to be more happy in life!”

“What life,” Jungwoo could hear Kun mutter under his breath. 

“ANYWAYS!” Lucas turned his attention back to Jungwoo. “Is there somewhere in particular you wanted to go to? Good thing we’re using Kun’s car today, I would have used mine but Kun says he hates my driving even though I go right at the speed limit.”

Jungwoo shook his head, laughing nervously. “No, no, I don’t have anywhere in particular I want to go to,” he said. “I- I really don’t mind.”

“Well, if you think of something-” Lucas opened the passenger seat for Jungwoo. “Let us know. It’s Saturday, after all, we have nothing to do!”

“I’m sorry, I thought you had an essay due tonight at midnight?” Kun reminded him. 

Lucas waved him off. “Nah, I already finished it, you worry too much,  _ hyung _ ,” he said, saying the hyung part in Korean instead of the Mandarin they used to talk to each other. “I am being a responsible adult as promised.

Kun shook his head, sighing. “You have five seconds to get in the car-”

“You don’t gotta tell me twice!” Lucas opened the back door and slid across the seats, slamming the door a bit too hard. “We’re gonna make Xiaojun fall in love with you-”

“That’s wishful thinking and you know it,” Kun said as Jungwoo sat quietly in the passenger seat, too scared to make himself comfortable. “I don’t need to get my hopes up.”

“Ah, Jesus Christ Kun, don’t be such a boomer,” Lucas told him. “We are on a mission to find him the perfect gift and we’re going to find it, I just know it.”

Jungwoo put on his seatbelt, watching Kun fix his car mirror before shifting car gears. “Don’t distract me while driving or I’ll kill us all-”

“LET’S PUT HIT5 ON THE RADIO!” Lucas exclaimed. “Kun, they’re on spotify, did you know?? I didn’t know that until the other day!”

Jungwoo turned around to look at Lucas. “What’s that?” he asked him. 

Lucas widened his eyes. “You don’t know HIT5?” 

“Huang Xuxi, you  _ do  _ realize the vast size of the People’s Republic of China?” Kun said. “Thus the sheer amount of singers and groups? It’s going to be very difficult to meet one person who knows an obscure group you like.”

“Qian Kun,” Lucas said, mocking him. “You  _ do  _ realize when I’m trying to educate someone, right?”

“Oh, I don’t really know much about music,” Jungwoo said quietly, not wanting them to argue. “I wasn’t really allowed to listen to any growing up.”

Lucas reached forward and grabbed the aux cord that Kun always kept connected in his car. “Well, I’m going to the wonders of the album “Are You Okay?” by this marvelous group that I discovered while I was learning Mandarin and wanted to immerse myself in the language,” he said, plugging his phone to the car. “Mall trip, here we come!!”

***   
  


“Are we  _ finally  _ going to vote for a song now?” Jeno asked the group during lunch. 

It had become routine for the new freshman to eat many meals together, not  _ just  _ because they didn’t know anyone, but simply because they enjoyed each other’s company. 

Not that they were going to expose how vulnerable they are and say that to the group, but you get the picture. 

Jaemin didn’t bother to look at Jeno, scooping up some more kimchi. “I don’t know nor do I care anymore, y’all can pick for me.”

Chen Le raised his hand as if they were in a class. “Me and Jaemin vote for Boom.”

“Ah, for crying out loud, Jaemin, I thought you were going to be on  _ my  _ side!” Jeno cried out. “How could you betray me?"

“Y’all are wack,” Renjun said, taking out his phone to open his daily planner. Surely there was an assignment due today that he was forgetting. “I give up.”

Jisung stabbed at his rice with his chopsticks. “I hope we get recognition,” he said. “I want to prove my parents wrong.”

“Don’t worry, Jisungie, we’re going to do great!” Chen Le said, grabbing his backpack and setting it on his lap. “I even bought cookies for us to celebrate-”

Renjun, who had taken a sip of milk, spat it out over his tray. Good thing he finished his salad two minutes ago. “Jisungie? You’re at a Jisungie stage now?”

Chen Le unzipped his backpack, looking at Renjun. “What’s wrong with Jisungie?” he asked innocently.

“That’s, like, for boyfriends,” Renjun started to explain, only to be interrupted by Jisung. 

“Renjun, shut up and let me be called Jisungie,” Jisung said, laying his body across the table with his hand held out to Chen Le. “Can I have a cookie now?”

“I want a nickname!” Jaemin yelled. “What’s  _ my  _ nickname??”

“I like Nana,” Jeno said, watching Chen Le unzip his bag and give Jisung a pack of oreos. “Ooh, I want a cookie, too! I’ll burn it later at dance practice today!”

Now  _ Jaemin _ , who took a sip of his water, spat it out over his tray, but unlike Renjun, he hadn’t finished his food. “WE HAVE DANCE PRACTICE TODAY?!?!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the next chapter will continue off from this chapter lol


	11. Breakdowns and Existential Crises

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yello

“You took me WHAT now?!” Si Cheng screamed at Ten precisely an hour later. 

Ten clutched his keys in his hands, giving Si Cheng a seemingly innocent grin. “Skating!! It’s too hot for ice skating but we can still roller skate!!”

Mouth half-open, staring at the roller rink in front of them after they had gotten out of the Uber, Si Cheng could feel a growing pain in his ankles. “Are you trying to kill me?”

“I’m tryna what now?” Ten asked him. ”Winwin, it’s skating.”

“Precisely. Skating,” Si Cheng said, repeating after him. “Which you, Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul, know I’m BAD at.”

Ten signed, clapping his hands together. “My dear Dong Si Cheng-“

“Oh, no, no, no, you are NOT going to dear me,” Si Cheng said, turning around. “I don’t deserve this torture-“

“It is not torture!” Ten said. “And can you please let me finish explaining why we are here? I’m not even gonna make you skate anyways, you still have bruises, Winwin.”

Si Cheng turned back around, raising an eye at Ten. “What are you planning?” he asked.

Pointing at one of the large, tinted windows of the skating rink, Ten gave Si Cheng a glare. “Have you seen the massive arcade they have here?”

Arcade? “Ten, you’re bad at playing those games,” Si Cheng pointed out. “And you curse at everybody every time you lose.” 

“Thank you, Winwin, I didn’t know that,” Ten said sarcastically. “But anyways, do you remember that delicious chocolate you found back in that one store in America?”

Si Cheng’s eyes widened. There was no way Ten was talking about those. 

“The packet with eleven tiny chocolate bars filled with strawberry yogurt?” Si Cheng asked.

Back in America when they were in Los Angeles, there had been a grocery store, if Si Cheng remembered correctly, where they had gone to try to get some random snacks to eat. Si Cheng had pondered for a while over what chocolates he should get, not wanting to eat anything despite being on vacation, when the box of chocolates caught his eye.

When he bought it, he took out the small bars and put them in his small pouch in his backpack, throwing the empty container away, not thinking too much about it. However, when he took his first bite of the chocolates….

It was, to say the least, heaven.

Unfortunately for Si Cheng, he didn’t remember the names of the chocolates at ALL, and he couldn’t find it online. For a few months, he had to suffer, not knowing the taste of those delicious morsels, and it came to a point that he thought he would never discover them ever again. 

Until now, when he saw Ten give him a grin. “The ones we got at Aldi in LA? Strawberry yoghurt? Ring a bell-“

Without another word, Si Cheng sprinted past Ten, marching to the doors. “I need those motherfuckers.”

“Winwin, wait for me!” Ten ran after him, watching Si Cheng open the doors of the rink. “Do you even know where they are??”

“Well, show me then!!” Si Cheng yelled, stopping in his tracks. “I’ll even skate with you, I don’t give a fuck!!”

Ten tilted his head in confusion. There was only one other time Si Cheng has willingly wanted to skate, and that was last year when he was trying to cheer up Ten who thought Johnny had been cheating on him. (Thankfully, it turned out he wasn’t - Ten promised he doesn’t usually have a bad sense of paranoia.) “I’m sorry, you’re gonna what now-“

One look at Si Cheng’s trembling body made him stop and move along with it. “Ten, I really need those chocolates.”

“Okay, okay, we’ll talk about your addiction later,” Ten said. “Okay, they have a shop right over there- DONG SI CHENG!” He reaches out to pull back a Si Cheng who was already heading towards the shop. “They sell candy and the overpriced shitty skates and all that good stuff, etc, etc, I came here the other day on a date with Johnny but someone got the last one before I could get it- bro, can you calm down for a second?! It’s Saturday, we have nowhere to be!”

Si Cheng tried to twist his arm away from Ten, but gave up a few seconds later. “How dare you taunt me.”

“You do realize I could have kept this information to myself,” Ten pointed out. “But I didn’t because I love you.”

Si Cheng rolled his eyes. “Yeah, right.”

“Hey, I said nothing depressing today!” Ten said, dragging Si Cheng to the small shop selling Si Cheng’s holy grail. “I already had one existential crisis today, I don’t need another.”

  
  


***

After “studying” with their boyfriends, Mark and Jaehyun came back to their apartment, only to find Yuta, face down on the floor. 

Thinking Yuta watched an anime again, Mark threw his backpack carelessly on the couch and kicked Yuta softly with his foot. “Hello, stupid, we’re here after doing nothing.”

Jaehyun frowned. “What do you mean nothing, I did work!”

“No you didn’t-“

They heard a sniffle coming from Yuta, causing them both to shut up. “You’re right,” he said, his voice muffled. “I am stupid.”

Mark and Jaehyun turned to face each other, giving themselves a knowing look.

“Hey, me and Jaehyun were gonna order pizza, do you want some?” Mark asked, his voice noticeably softer, stepping around Yuta’s body to stand in front of him. Up closer, he couldn’t see Yuta’s face, as the latter had his head flat on the floor, but he could see how wet Yuta’s cheeks were. “Bacon and pepperoni-“

“Not hungry,” Yuta replies, his voice muffled. 

“When’s the last time you ate?” Jaehyun asked. “Maybe we can go out to dinner later.”

Both Jaehyun and Mark waited for Yuta to give him a response, but all they got was silence. 

“I’m going to call Winwin,” Jaehyun said, taking his phone out of his pocket.

Immediately, Yuta whipped his head up, giving Jaehyun a glare. “No the fuck you’re not,” he said, his voice much clearer now. Jaehyun could see how red Yuta’s eyes were. “The last thing I need is for him to get worried.”

Mark stared at Yuta, eyes squinting, arms crossed over his chest. “Why would Si Cheng need to get worried though?” he asked rhetorically. “Unless there is a problem.”

“There is no fucking problem,” Yuta said, pushing himself off the ground, not breaking eye contact with them. “I have no problem and I’m not going to see a damn therapist about it.”

Mark raised his hands up. “You said it, not me-“

“Mark, don’t make him mad,” Jaehyun said, raising up his phone to show Yuta. “And Yuta, don’t make me press send.”

Yuta rubbed his face vigorously, forcing himself to be more awake. “I’m going to be in my room, leave me alone-“

“Can we talk for a minute?!” Mark said, slightly raising his voice as he reached out to pull Yuta back. “Yuta-“

“Can I  _ please  _ have a meltdown in peace?!” Yuta said back to him. “It’s not that serious and you guys exaggerate every little thing I do.”

“Yeah, because you practically starving every day because you refuse to eat and sleeping till 4 am while stressing about your assignments and grades is perfectly normal,” Jaehyun replied.

Yuta scoffed, rolling his eyes. “Because a, I’m a college student and b, again, I’m stupid.” He reached out with his free hand and took Mark’s hand off him. “Thanks for reminding me.”

Jaehyun sighed, stuffing his phone into his pocket. As much as he really wanted to tell Si Cheng, he had to discuss things with Yuta first. “Yuta,” he said finally. “Sorry if I’m handling things the wrong way, but you have to understand that both you and Mark, though he’s an idiot-“

“Bro, the fuck?!” Mark interjected.

“-are my best friends,” Jaehyun continued. “We’re obviously going to get worried.” 

“It’s not your job, though,” Yuta reminded him.

“Well, I don’t care,” Jaehyun said. “So if you’re not going to talk to me or Mark, at least talk to someone, I don’t know, your boyfriend, your therapist,  _ someone _ , Yuta.”

Yuta shook his head. “Winwin has his own problems right now,” he said quietly. “I’m not going to burden him. And I am not going to a therapist.”

“Okay, but you got me,” Jaehyun reminded him. 

“I’m not burdening you either,” Yuta continued. 

“Well, if you’re not going to talk about it,” Mark replied, “then… I don’t know, do something to forget about it-“

“What type of motherfucking advice is that?!?” Jaehyun scolded Mark.

“Okay, bitch, tell me what’s preferable, Yuta crying in his room all weekend at a low point or actually being able to enjoy himself for a small while?!” Mark shouted back at Jaehyun. 

This was too much for Yuta. The last thing he wanted was for his friends to worry about him, and now thanks to him, they were fighting. 

“I need to leave,” Yuta said, sprinting past his friends. “I- I have to go.”

“Yuta-“ both Jaehyun and Mark interjected, only for Yuta to open the door, slamming it behind him.

***

“-So then Hit5 disbanded and I cried in my room- woah, we’re already here?!?!” Lucas exclaimed loudly, staring at the window in awe.

Kun, who had been clutching the steering wheel tightly (he had a deathly fear of getting in a car accident) didn’t even bother to look at Lucas through the rear view mirror, not wanting to take his eyes off the road. “Yeah, we’re here, and I still have no idea what to get Xiaojun.”

“Ah, come on, Kun, just buy him something he’ll like!” Lucas said, grinning. He liked helping his friend. “If you see something that reminds you of him, just get that! It’s just a small gift, Kun.”

Jungwoo looked at the window as well, marveled at the sight of the mall. It looked ginormous, in his opinion, although maybe that’s because he’s never been to a mall before. 

Surely he’s been to a mall before in China, right? Why can’t he remember?

“How do I know he’ll like it, though?” Kun asked. 

Lucas slapped his forehead. “This is worse than when I went to Archive of Our Own and only found one fan fiction for Hit5,” he muttered. “KUN! DON’T DOUBT YOURSELF!”

“I am not doubting myself!” Kun yelled back. “I’m being realistic here!”

“”Well, who cares about being realistic,” Lucas concluded. “We’re getting something for Xiaojun.”

Kun parked the car in a parking space far from the mall, almost at the other side. “If you keep talking like that I’m going to accidentally crash the car.”

“Well, put it in parking first,” Lucas reminded him. “I got in a car crash once cause I put the car in neutral and I forgot-“

“You’ve been in a  _ WHAT _ ?!” Kun shrieked. 

Jungwoo took out his phone in silence, turning it on real quick to reply to his mother, who kept asking him what he was doing. Jungwoo, not wanting to lie but yet not wanting to get in trouble, said he was shopping for some supplies for a project, which was partly true - he needed more college ruled paper for one of his math classes. 

“Anyways!” Lucas got out of the car, taking his backpack with him. “We’re going to have so much fun today, gosh, I love Saturdays!” 

Sighing, Kun followed Lucas out of the car, and Jungwoo followed in their footsteps, leaving out of the car quickly. 

Outside, Jungwoo got a much better view of the shopping mall, and the sight left him in bewilderment.

There were  _ so  _ many people present.

Apparently, everyone in the city must have gotten the same idea to visit the mall, because it was absolutely crowded. Jungwoo could see a variety of people being present, from groups of teens and young couples to families and elderly people, everyone in their own world.

“-And I can use another tub of tootsie rolls- Jungwoo!” Lucas, who had been heading away from the car, stopped, walking back towards Jungwoo who had stopped in shock. “Hey, Jungwoo, are you okay?”

Jungwoo snapped his head up to look at Lucas. “Good!” he said, giving a grin out of reflex. “I’m good, sorry, I’m just trying to remember the last time I went to the mall.”   
  


“You’re not missing much- ow,” Kun started to say, only to be interrupted when Lucas gave him a slap on the arm. 

“Do  _ NOT  _ make Jungwoo uncomfortable with your existential crises,” Lucas reminded his best friend. “And while you’re at it, you owe your cousin Chen Le something too, don’t you?”   
  


“I owe him a pair of socks,” Kun reminded him. “Because I ‘tore a hole in his favorite pair’. Which I took the blame despite knowing it was you."

At the name of Chen Le, Jungwoo stood in front of him. “Wait, Chen Le?” he asked. “Is he a freshman?”

Kun shrugged. “Yeah, my cousin,” he said. “How do you know him?”

“Oh, uh-” Jungwoo scratched the back of his neck. “My cousin Si Cheng’s boyfriend is tutoring some freshmen who are learning dance-”

“Oh, Yuta,” Kun said, realizing who Jungwoo was talking about. “Yeah, I’ve heard of Yuta-”

“NAKAMOTO YUTA?!” Lucas shrieked, despite being outside of the mall where a couple of heads turned to look at him. “THE SENIOR YUTA ON CAMPUS?!”

Jungwoo thought that Yuta being popular was an exaggeration like in the movies, but now it may turn out to have some truth to it. “Uh… yeah, he’s nice,” Jungwoo said. 

“Wait- wait, it’s…  _ the _ Yuta, right?” Kun asked again. “The dude whose boyfriend was thrown in the river last year?”

Jungwoo frowned. “River?”

“Oh YEAH!” Lucas shouted. “You told me you and your cousin found him, right?” 

“Yeah, it was before Chen Le got enrolled here,” Kun explained, the two talking between themselves again as Lucas kept asking more questions. 

Meanwhile, Jungwoo tried to think about Si Cheng. He got thrown in the river?  _ When? _

__ He knew that in high school, Si Cheng had a lot of bullies and got run over at one point, but it happened in college, too? Was it because of this so-called Yuta being popular and people getting jealous? Was it people being homophobic? Xenophobic? Just people being rude?

What was his brother hiding from him?”

“Can we  _ not  _ talk about Jungwoo’s cousin being thrown in the river?” Kun said loudly. “First, that’s depressing and I don’t need another existential crisis, and second, people are listening.”

“You’re right!” Lucas exclaimed. “Let’s get your present for Xiaojun!”

“I CAN’T THINK OF A PRESENT!” Kun said. 

“Well, me and Jungwoo will help!” Lucas exclaimed, grabbing Kun’s forearm and Jungwoo’s hand, pulling them both forward to the mall. “We will help you!”

***

An hour before their so-called dance practice, the three of them had a meeting. 

Well, by three, they meant the Koreans of the group, Jaemin, Jeno and Jisung. For reasons about to be explained in five seconds, obviously Renjun and Chen Le couldn’t be present. 

They were in Jaemin’s dorm room, which he scared with some guy named Sungchan who creeped him out and thankfully was not present to whatever they were about to do. 

“Why did you request to have a Koreans-only meeting?” Jisung asked Jaemin. “That’s kind of discriminatory-”

“Because it involves our Chinese friends and they cannot know about this,” Jaemin explained. “Thus, which is why I lied and told them it involved giving them presents regarding their homesickness. Which we will still do, of course, right Jeno?”

Jeno nodded, holding out a cupcake. “I want to bake for them!” he said, grinning, eyes shut in reflex. 

Gosh, how Jaemin loved that eye smile, but that’s not the love life they are here to talk about! 

“ANYWAYS!” Jaemin turned off the light in the room, ignoring Jisung’s outburst of what the fuck. “Jisung, sit at the desk chair-”

“I CAN’T SEE, NIMWIT!” Jisung yelled. 

“JISUNG SIT IN THE CHAIR!”

“FINE!” in the dark, Jisung got up from the floor and sat on the chair in front of the desk. “What do this have to do with presents?”

Jaemin laughed. “Oh, it had nothing to do with presents,” he said, turning on the moveable desk lamp on his desk, momentarily blinding Jisung. “It has to do with  _ dramatic  _ effect.”

Jisung squinted his eyes, completely different to how Jeno’s eyes appeared closed. “What in the world are you talking about?”

Jaemin slammed his hand on the desk, staring at Jisung until the younger opened his eyes. “How long have you been in love with Chen Le?” he asked quietly. 

“WHAT?!” Jisung yelled, getting off of the chair. “I am  _ not  _ in love with Chen Le!”    
  


Jaemin straightened his posture, extending a hand to Jeno as he slowly pushed Jisung back to his seat. “Jeno! The evidence!” 

Jeno handed a folder to Jaemin, grinning. “Here you go!”

Jaemin grabbed a pair of glasses on the study and put them on, reading a single piece of paper on the folder. “You let him call you Jisungie, you are  _ always  _ looking at him when we eat, you always make sure he’s okay-”

“You have  _ no  _ idea how ridiculous you sound right now,” Jisung said. 

Jaemin set the folder down on the desk, arms crossing over his chest. “Wait, you don’t like Chen Le?” he asked. 

“I- I mean, not romantically,” Jisung said. “But he’s a good friend.”

“Oh, thank god, YES, Jeno, I have asked  _ everyone  _ and that means I am free to ask Chen Le out for myself!” Jaemin exclaimed. 

In a flash, Jisung stood back up. “YOU CAN’T DO THAT!” he shouted. “I LIKE HIM, OKAY!?!?”

Jaemin grinned, winking at Jeno. “Haha, Renjun owes me a dollar.”

“Wow, that actually worked!” Jeno exclaimed. 

Jisung, realizing what he said, sat back down as if in a daze. “Wait, what?”

“Dude, I’m not asking him out,” Jaemin said, showing Jisung the paper which is blank. “It’s just obvious and I just wanted to hear it myself.”

“Don’t worry, we won’t tell anybody!” Jeno reassured him. 

Jisung slapped his face with his two hands, refusing to look at the two. “I- I can’t believe you guys.”

“Lol, whatever,” Jaemin said. “Let’s get ready for dance practice soon.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> does anyone know the name of that candy, I forgot
> 
> I KNOW THERES NO YUWIN IN THIS CHAPTER ITLL BE IN THE NEXT, SORRY!!!!
> 
> also i know i always mention hit5 in my stories, i am SORRY


	12. Shit, We Have Homework

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i made this chapter really long on accident but ive been slow on updating so idgaf

The weekend ended, and Monday evening, Si Cheng found himself at the ramen shop with Yuta again. 

“Yo, this is the best fucking ramen I’ve had in my entire life,” Yuta said, picking up some more noodles on his third bowl. “I’m fucking  _ starving _ , I haven’t eaten anything all day.”

At the mention of all day, Si Cheng looked up from his own bowl (his first and  _ only  _ bowl, matter of fact), staring at his boyfriend. “Yuta, you  _ do  _ realize it’s, like, almost eleven, right?”

Yuta nodded. “Yeah, what about it?”

“I- that’s mildly intriguing,” Si Cheng trailed off. “At least you’re eating now, though.”

“Yeah, cause it’s ramen,” Yuta pointed out, scooping off some more noodles before stuffing it in his mouth. 

Si Cheng, having long since been accustomed to Yuta’s eating habits, took a sip of his lemonade, staring at his own bowl. If he was honest, he hadn’t eaten much today either; he skipped breakfast when he woke up past his alarm, and he had dance practice today after his classes, so he was really only running on the two bowls of rice he managed to eat with Ten earlier today. He wasn’t in the position to criticize Yuta for not eating. And, like he said, at least he’s eating now. 

“What’s gotten you so pensive?” Si Cheng looked up to see Yuta staring at him, his bowl almost empty. He still had no idea how Yuta could eat so fast. “Did something happen today? I mean, it’s Monday.”

“No, not really,” Si Cheng said, pushing his bowl slowly away from him, crossing his arms on the table. “I think I’m just a little tired, I guess. Like you said, it’s Monday.”

“Yeah, I wish the weekend would come back,” Yuta agreed, setting his chopsticks down. “Though I hated the weekend too, but at least I didn’t have to go to class.” He sighed. “Man, I just want to graduate now.”

Si Cheng knew the feeling all too well. “Well, at least you’re a senior,” Si Cheng pointed out. “You only have a year. And you’re doing well in your business classes, no doubt you’ll find a job easily back in Japan.” 

Yuta glared at him. “You have  _ no  _ idea how wrong that statement is,” he mumbled, pushing his bowl away loudly, the chopsticks and spoon clattering in his bowl. “God, I fucking hate life.”

“I- what’s wrong, what did I say?” Si Cheng asked, confused. “Yuta?”

“Hmm? Oh, nothing, it’s me,” he said, crossing his arms over on the table as well before laying down his head afterwards. “I hate life,” he added, his voice now muffled. 

Si Cheng bit his lip, taking his phone out of his front pocket. The time displayed 10:53 PM, and he was so  _ sure  _ he was going to fall asleep like Yuta here any second now, but he didn’t like Yuta speaking like this. 

“You know you can tell me if something happened, right?” Si Cheng said softly, turning his phone back off. “I think I’m, like, the least qualified person to judge you, at this rate.”

“Our situations are-” Yuta lifted his head back up to look at Si Cheng. “ _ -completely  _ different, though. You don’t have the fault in  _ any  _ of your problems but it’s the opposite for me.”

“I- problems- I’m sorry,  _ what _ ?” Si Cheng asked. “What- what problems, Yuta, what’s wrong?”

“Jesus christ, Winwin,  _ nothing _ , I’m just stressed about school, okay?!” Yuta yelled. “I’m  _ allowed  _ to be stressed, aren’t I? It’s not a big deal and you guys are all freaking out over nothing!” 

He grabbed his backpack that he had thrown on the floor earlier and swung it on, pushing his chair back to stand up, ignoring the loud screeching sound it emitted. “I need to leave, I have homework to finish and I’m going to strive to get five hours of sleep instead of four-”

He stopped his rambling when he felt Si Cheng grab his hand, causing him to turn around and see his boyfriend, whose eyes were now filled with tears. 

“Because of my words, I lost my mother,” Si Cheng whispered, a tear rolling down his cheek. “I don’t know what I said, Yuta, but I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I can’t lose you to, I’m-”

“Si Cheng, I’m- I’m sorry, Si Cheng, I- oh, fuck.” Yuta sat back down and held onto Si Cheng’s hand tightly, the latter silently crying. “I didn’t mean to be an asshole, I’m just really stressed, I’m  _ so  _ sorry-”

Si Cheng used his free hand to wipe his face with his sleeve, sniffling. “I didn’t mean to pry, I just-”

“No, you didn’t, I- it’s just schoolwork, I swear, I’m sorry,” Yuta apologized. “I- I just didn’t have a good weekend, I supposed. I didn’t mean to yell at you.”

Si Cheng nodded, taking a deep breath before speaking. “It’s fine,” he muttered. “I just- I just really hate fighting between us.”

Yuta nodded. “Yeah, me too, god, I am turning into an asshole, aren’t I…” he trailed off. 

“I heard sleep deprivation makes people cranky,” Si Cheng said. “Maybe you should sleep soon, that way you wake up well rested.”

“I  _ do not  _ have enough time to sleep,” Yuta mumbled. “Like none. I need at  _ least  _ 30 hours a day, heck, I don’t even remember the last time I saw anime.”

Yeah, Si Cheng has no idea why he thought that would work. “Well, if you’re not going to sleep now, we can… study together, if you want.”

Yuta groaned, throwing his head back. “I got assignments due tomorrow, I fucking hate my life,” he groaned out. “Man, I can’t believe we met because I was a failure in stats.”

“You were  _ not  _ a failure in stats,” Si Cheng reminded him. “Mind you, your hard effort made you pass that class.” He paused. “Actually, the first time we spoke outside of class was when I thought you were passed out on a bench. I think you were writing a will.”

“Yeah, that sounds like me, all right,” Yuta agreed. “I do update my will every week, though. Speaking of which, when I die from my classes, I’ll give you my textbooks. You could earn some mad money from them.”

***

Tuesday afternoon, right when Jungwoo was about to head to lunch, he got a text from Lucas asking him to meet up. 

Confused, Jungwoo agreed, not asking for any more details, so he had no idea what to expect when he got to the engineering building, where Lucas had designated it as the meet-up spot. 

Hoping this wasn’t one of those pranks you see in the movies, Jungwoo looked around, wondering where Lucas was, when he heard a pst.

Startled, he whirled his head around. There weren’t many students outside, no doubt most of the in class at the moment, so they had to be speaking to him if he could hear them. “Hello?” he asked in Korean, taking out his phone to message Lucas again.

He heard someone speak in Mandarin next. “Jungwoo, I am behind the tree.” 

Jungwoo, clutching his phone tighter, walked around the tree closest to where he had been on the sidewalk, surprised to see Lucas there on the ground sitting. “What are you doing here?” Jungwoo asked in Mandarin as well. “Why did you want to meet up?”

Lucas gave him a grin before turning his attention back to the engineering building. He was positioned in a way that if you came out of the building through the main doors, you wouldn’t be able to see him, yet he had a good view. “I am waiting for Kun,” he said, grabbing his backpack besides him and unzipping it. “Hold on, I want to feel like a spy.”

Jungwoo sat down besides Lucas, criss-crossed with his phone in his lap. “Are you going to scare him?” he asked, watching Lucas pull out- wait, why did he pull out binoculars? “Are you pranking him?”

“Hmm? No, I wouldn’t dare, at least not in public,” Lucas said, looking through the binoculars at the engineering building. “That wouldn’t make me a good friend. What  _ would  _ make me a good friend is supporting him behind the scenes with Xiaojun.”

Oh, right, Xiaojun, the guy Kun was in love with. “Has he given him the present yet?” Jungwoo asked. During the weekend when they went to the mall, Kun had  _ finally  _ managed to pick out a cute, simplistic journal with a keychain for him, explaining how Xiaojun had an assortment of them that he used for his notes and planning. Also, per Lucas’ request, he taped a tiny box of chocolates on it. 

Kun  _ really  _ thought that Xiaojun was going to find the gift lame and was thinking of ditching the whole idea, but Lucas managed to talk him out of it. 

“Unfortunately, he has  _ not _ , but I told him if he doesn’t give it to him today I’m going to march right down Xiaojun’s dorm and tell him all about Kun’s crush on him,” Lucas explained. Binoculars in one hand, he put his hand in his backpack again and pulled out a bag of what looked to be a yellow dessert. “Not that I would, of course, but I pretended to be serious about it. Do you want a lemon bar?”

He turned his attention away from the building and extended his hand towards Jungwoo, who eyes the dessert. “Uh… I haven’t eaten lunch yet, I don’t think it’d be a good idea.” 

“Oh, it’s okay, I get it,” Lucas said, setting it down in front of Jungwoo’s lap. “I haven’t either, me and Kun are supposed to go together, but I am  _ sure  _ he and Xiaojun are taking their time walking.” He lifted the binoculars up again and peered through them. “Which is  _ definitely  _ a good sign.”

Jungwoo picked up the bag of lemon bars that Lucas had laid out for him, pressing his hands against it softly. The lemon bars felt a bit squishy, no doubt having been squashed in Lucas’ bag, but otherwise in seemingly perfect condition. 

“How do you know Kun will give him the gift here?” Jungwoo asked, setting the plastic bag down carefully on the grass, thankful there wasn’t any dirt or mud anywhere. “Maybe he gave it inside or they’ll walk for a bit.”

“Well, you see-” Lucas set the binoculars down again, picking up his phone to glance at the time. “After his class, Kun goes that way,” he said, pointing towards the right side of the building (their left). “Towards the cafeteria, and from what he has told me, Xiaojun has a class in the music building, which is the other way, so here is where they say their goodbyes to each other before walking off. Sometimes I go inside the engineering building and see them together but this building is  _ very  _ intimidating.”

Jungwoo tilted his, trying to get a better view of the building. “You think it’s intimidating?” he asked. “Why?”

“Engineering students live on no sleep!” Lucas exclaimed. “And the stuff they come up with is unbelievable. Man, I feel stupid stepping into that building, even though I’m STEM as well. Hey, speaking of which, what’s your major? I don’t think I ever asked.”

“Uh- uh, I mean, I’m a freshman,” Jungwoo explained to him. “I’m… undecided, yeah.”

“Oh, you have plenty of time,” Lucas reassured him. He set his backpack on his lap and flipped through his assortment of notebooks. “Just do something you’ll love, that’s why I’m just a computer science major.”

“C-computer  _ science _ ?” Jungwoo stuttered. “As in coding?”

“Hmm? Oh, yeah, I love coding!” Lucas took out a tattered black notebook, with the words Program 11 on it. “In one of my classes they’re trying to teach Ruby on Rails but I already know all the coding languages, so I’ve been trying to teach myself Swift, which is what Apple created a few years ago. And for one of my classes I have to make a program that I already finished as well, but I did it on paper so now I have to transfer it to a word document, but hopefully with this new program I’m trying to make it’ll type out words that it can see from handwriting based on some algorithms I’ve written and kind of using facial-recognition technology, but, eh, no big deal.”

Lucas stopped his rambling and zipped up his backpack, leaving the notebook and binoculars out. “I know you said you won’t eat them, but you can still have the lemon bars,” he said, giving Jungwoo a grin. “I think they turned out good, my friend Renjun says they were okay. I think he’s going to give them to his dance friends which is weird because a few weeks ago he wanted to murder them with a sock-”

Normally, Jungwoo didn’t like to interrupt people mid sentence, but when he saw someone familiar come out of the engineering building, his eyes widened as he grabbed onto Lucas’ shoulder, shaking it as he pointed towards the building. “Is- is that Kun?”

“KUN?!” Lucas shrieked, but before he could scream anything else, Jungwoo lifted his hand from his shoulder and covered Lucas’ mouth. 

His face turned a light shade of pink at the contact, but he tried to remain focused on what they were here for. “I- I’m assuming you’re hiding cause you don’t want them to see you,” Jungwoo sputtered out. “So we have to be quiet.”

Lucas nodded quickly, not saying a word until Jungwoo took his hand off of Lucas’ mouth, who immediately started rambling again, though more quietly this time. “Here, you can use the binoculars,” Lucas said, handing them to Jungwoo as he looked at the engineering building, making a binocular gesture with his hands over his eyes. “I have 20/15 eyesight, I’m good, I was using it for the aesthetic, anyways.”

“20/15? That’s- that’s not how eyesights work,” Jungwoo stammered out, putting the binoculars on his eyes slowly, not wanting to get it dirty even though his hands were clean. “Oh, is that guy Xiaojun?”

Kun, who was unaware that the two were watching him, was climbing down the steps of the building, talking to someone next to them. He was short, much shorter than Kun beside him, and he looked to be carrying some journals in his arms.

“20/15 means that what a normal person sees at 15 feet, I can see at 20- oh my god, Xiaojun! Their meeting is going to cut short, now, come on Kun, I believe in you, man!” Lucas whisper-shouted. “Come on, do it! Hey, Jungwoo, don’t you think Xiaojun over there likes him? I mean, you can’t tell everything from body language but it’s a good start I believe.”

Jungwoo stole another glance at Xiaojun. He was laughing at something Kun had said, although they couldn’t hear much from where they were hiding. He was also dressed nice, much better and more modern clothes than what Jungwoo would wear. 

“I can’t really see much,” Jungwoo admitted. “I’m sorry.”

“No, it’s fine, I know you haven’t met Xiaojun,” Lucas said, giving him a grin. “But, ah, you surely must have met some people now as a freshman, right? You did much better luck than me, all I did was cry in my room, you’re a brave college student.”

Brave? Jungwoo doesn’t think he’s done anything brave. All he’s been doing is doing stuff like his mother had been telling him, only focusing on school and studying, eating quickly in the cafeteria. University was a different place, for sure, but for now, all it feels like is that he’s been doing the same routine as before.

“Look, Xiaojun is giving him another Ferrero Rocher!” Lucas exclaimed, clapping his hands together. “Kun has like one minute to give him the gift, gosh, I need to give Kun more self confidence lessons again-”

From Jungwoo’s point of view, both Xiaojun and Kun had stopped in front of the steps, standing next to the grass away from the sidewalk where they wouldn’t be in people’s way. Xiaojun was offering a small chocolate in his right palm, holding it out to Kun, who hesitated to take it. 

At last, Kun did take it, but instead of unwrapping it open, he took off his backpack and zipped it open, taking out the journal with the taped chocolates that he had gotten at the mall. 

Lucas’ eyes widened. “He- he actually did it, wow! I’m so happy for him! Jungwoo, look, can you believe it, Kun finally gave it to him!”

Jungwoo set the binoculars down, smiling. “That’s actually really sweet of him,” he said. “It’s really romantic.”

“Yeah, I wish I could have a girlfriend or boyfriend,” Lucas said, sighing. “But I’m glad Kun is getting there- holy! We’re almost late for lunch, Jungwoo, do you want to go together? We should head there soon before Kun suspects us, we can lie and say we did homework together.”

Jungwoo nodded. “Yeah, sure, that sounds like a good idea.”

***

“What are you doing?” Ten asked, sitting down on the couch besides Johnny, criss crossing his feat. He had a pint of ice cream in his hands, the Ben and Jerry’s half baked peanut butter one to be more specific. His  _ second  _ pint of the day. “It’s almost 5, do you want to do something together?”

Johnny, who had his old laptop in front of him, barely gave Ten a glance before turning his attention back to the screen. “I’m trying to finish this assignment,” he said, continuing to type. “It’s for my political science class, we’re learning about the UN right now.”

“Oh, the UN, that’s always a fun topic,” Ten said, digging his spoon into the pint. It was hard to get into, and it didn’t help that he was using a plastic spoon. “Didn’t the president of the US get the country out of the World Health Organization based on a whim?”

“Yeah, fuck that guy,” Johnny said, picking up a notebook besides him and flipping through the pages. “And WHO is part of the UN, anyways, but I’m focusing on the Security Council at the moment.”

Johnny didn’t say anything else in the meantime, typing on his computer again, glancing at the notebook every now and then, letting Ten to sit on the couch to eat his ice cream.    
  


He was already down to half the pint when Johnny finally spoke up again. “I”m sorry for not talking.”

“Huh? No, Johnny, you’re completely fine,” Ten said quickly, setting his ice cream done. “I’m just stress eating again, I’m not really doing anything. I know you’re studying and- I guess I just didn’t want to be alone.” He sighed, stabbing his plastic spoon into the pint, trying to get another scoop when it broke, splitting in half. “I only have one assignment due tomorrow and I already finished it, so…” 

“You’ve been stress eating a lot,” Johnny said, closing his laptop shut. He set it down besides him on top of the notebook, putting his hands in his lap as he looked at Ten. “Is there something going on?”

Ten grabbed the broken half of the ice cream pint and dug it in, not caring that ice cream was getting splattered on his hands. “I’m not stress eating a lot.”

Johnny squinted his eyes at him. “I overheard you telling Winwin that you can now make homemade shrimp arepas.”

“That loveable thot,” Ten muttered, squeezing the plastic spoon until it broke again. “Wait,  _ you  _ overheard? That is  _ none  _ of your concern.” 

“Now you know how  _ I  _ feel everytime you remind me to sleep,” Johnny said. “Come on, babe, what’s wrong?”

Ten put the lid of the pint back on, leaving the broken spoon bits inside as he set it on the floor, crossing his arms. “I thought you were doing homework.”

“I _ finished,  _ mind you,” Johnny said. He opened the smaller pocket on his backpack and pulled out a bag of tissues, pulling some out to clean Ten’s hands, who were streaked with ice cream. “I have work tomorrow again and I was able to squeeze all the stuff I had to do today, so now I’m free. I wanted to spend some time with you.” 

Ten stared at his hands, picking at his fingernails. “I just don’t know what I’m going to do with my life,” he said. “I don’t know.” 

“Something amazing, I’m sure,” Johnny said, putting an arm around Ten, pulling him in closer. “You’re going to do great, and besides, you’re only halfway done college, babe, you’re life goals can  _ still  _ change.”

“I know, it’s just- oh, god, I hate being a sad bitch,” Ten said, groaning. “I’m going to eat-”

“ _ No  _ more eating for you,” Johnny said, wrapping both his arms around Ten, giving him a back hug. “Let  _ me  _ eat something for a change.”

Ten raised an eye, twisting his body around to look at Johnny in the eye. “I don’t get it, are you horny or hungry?”

‘Well, to be honest, I was going to go eat my own ice cream,” Johnny said truthfully. “But sex is also good. Winwin doesn’t come back until seven, right?”

Ten grinned. “Eight. He’s meeting Yuta somewhere.”

“Sounds good to me!” Johnny said, carrying Ten bridal-style before getting them off the couch. “Finished my homework just in time.”

“Oh, god  _ don’t  _ remind me of homework,” Ten said, laughing as Johnny carried him towards their room. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> people always make Lucas STUPID, I'm not dealing with that in this household!!! (honeslty, he's really smart, i think people just class him dumb since he's eccentric and expresses through body language which is hurtful)
> 
> i know i have like 11 wips but i was thinking of another yuwin story plotline, idk what to do though


End file.
